Contestants of all shapes and sizes at one of Stansbury Day’s most popular events were jumpy and jittery before their race started.

Even though some were more stubborn to jump, frogs and humans alike hopped around during third annual frog jumping contest held at the shore of Stansbury Lake by the clubhouse on Saturday afternoon.

The sun loomed overhead as each child or adult took their turn with a frog — either self-caught or borrowed from a collected stash of more than 30 frogs from Stansbury Lake and surrounding ponds. They tapped on the frog’s behind or pounded on the ground so the frog would jump three times for the longest distance.

Chelsea Dixon’s bull frog Sir Jumps A Lot was one of the first to jump. Sir Jumps A Lot’s distance of 11 feet stood up against 40 other frogs as the furthest jump.

Second place went to the youngest participant in the event, 8-month old Seth Walter whose tiny frog Peanut jumped 9 feet 5 inches. Seth’s dad Roger placed the frog on the starting mark and as Seth’s foot hit the frog on the backside, Peanut flew through the air. Three hops later, Seth and Peanut were in a steady hold for second.

“It’s time for [Seth] to play with frogs,” Roger said while allowing his son to pet the frog before letting it go in the lake. “He really likes them.”

Coming in third was the Young Family with Hoppy who jumped a distance of 8 feet 2 inches.

Kiley Jones, 17, was trying to take the title of the best frog-hopper away from Forest Johnson who won last year’s contest. Jones won in 2006 and took a few minutes off work as a lifeguard at the Stansbury Pool to put Pokey in the running. After several minutes of coaxing, Pokey would only complete three sluggish jumps for 5 feet 7 inches.

She caught her frog with her younger sister Chelsea, 13, whose frog Mr. George jumped 6 feet 3 inches before taking off in the grass.

“We caught them at 1 a.m. on the golf course this morning,” Kiley Jones said. “We go frog hunting all the time.”

Five years ago, Kiley and Chelsea would have had a difficult time finding frogs in the lake or ponds as the amphibian hadn’t seen those waters until the species was brought over five to six years ago from Calvareas County, Calif.

“We went from zero to a very high population,” said Jessica Johnson who ran the frog jumping contest and is an aficionado of the animal.

Johnson, who has lived in Stansbury Park for 10 years, grew up on a lake in Pennsylvania where frogs were prevalent. She has seen the population in Stansbury grow rapidly over the years.

Johnson has even passed the love of frog hunting on to her sons.

“This is what my sons love to do with their mother,” she said.

In fact, her son Forest caught the majority of the 30 frogs used in the contest. And it’s one of the pastimes Johnson enjoys most.

“I could feel horrible and go frog hunting and feel like a million bucks,” Johnson said.

All of the frogs were let go into the lake so they could continue making more frogs for next year’s contest. Even those skittish of the hopping amphibians couldn’t help but think of them as cute. And with so many people around and the frogs blending in with the grass: “There were no fatalities,” Johnson said jokingly, “that we know of.”

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com