By Jennette Barnes, Globe correspondent
Chris McDowell didn’t set out to be a high-jumper. He entered his freshman year at Hingham High School uncertain of what sport he would choose.
Would it be football, the most popular sport in America and social center of many a high school experience? Would it be soccer, with its vast international following?
He considered both, but settled on track and field because he had friends who were doing the same. The decision has served him well.
Although his older sister, Caroline — now a senior economics major at Harvard — was a hurdler, his dad was a triple-jumper and long-jumper, and his uncle ran track at the University of Pennsylvania, McDowell didn’t think he had much potential for the sport.
He quickly proved himself wrong; as of the end of last month, the Hingham junior was ranked one of the top-10 high-jumpers among high schoolers in the country, with enough championship potential that college recruiters already are scouting him.
But achievement isn’t the only thing McDowell found on the track.
The Hingham track team is a community, he said. Athletes support one another, and coaches treat them with respect. No one gets angry if someone makes a mistake. Boys and girls are less segregated than in other sports, attending the same meets and sometimes training together.
Students of different ages interact and make friends, and with coaches’ encouragement, they mentor younger members of the team.
’’It’s kind of made me the person I am,’’ he said.
When he first joined the team, the students participated in a jumping test. McDowell thought he’d done only an OK job, until he realized he’d scored highest among the freshmen, he said.
He got the bug. At home, in a meandering, gabled brick house down a long driveway on Lincoln Street, he started leaping eight steps at a time, said his mom, Kim McDowell. And sometimes, just for fun, he would jump from a standing position onto the kitchen island.
Within three years, McDowell went from novice to nationally ranked high-jumper.
Earlier this season, he was ranked second in the country, his coach said. He has since dropped a few spots, standing at seventh in the nation last week. The statistics change constantly, but whatever happens, McDowell has qualified for the National Scholastic Sports Foundation championship in New York City in March.
’’This season, he exploded,’’ said Dawn Diedricksen, the Hingham boys’ high-jump coach. ’’It’s rare in high jump for an athlete to improve this much in one season.’’
He jumped 6 feet 7 inches, adding several inches to his best from last year and setting a school record for the indoor jump.
