Jack Normand was not eager to join the Summit track and field team.

“It was a sport that my parents made me do to stay in shape,” he recalls. “I’d go out and just mess around in the long jump pits.”

Summit coach Dave Turnbull remembers a freshman Normand as “goofy” and “thin.”

Three years later, Normand is one of the top prep high jumpers in the state.

His mark of 6 feet 6 inches is tied for the best jump of any Oregon high schooler this season.

“He’s put the time in the weight room this year like nobody else,” Turnbull says of Normand. “If you want to be good in this sport you have to love the weight room. You have to get strong and you have to stay athletic and he’s done that.”

Normand started out as a long jumper and triple jumper.

“Really it was about sophomore year that I started to see marks and I started offseason training and then I really saw improvements,” says Normand, who trains and competes indoors in the winter with the Mondo Track Club, which is directed by Turnbull. “I just started really enjoying track.”

Normand did not begin high jumping until his junior year.

In his first season doing the high jump, Normand placed second at the 5A state championships last spring, clearing 6-4.

“He surprised everybody and had his biggest meet at the state meet,” Turnbull says. “He really bit into it (high jump) and Troy (Tosdale, a Summit assistant coach) set him up beautifully. He taught him all the fundamentals.”

Turnbull added that Normand is the high jumper he is today because of Tosdale.

This season, Normand has his sights set on jumping 6-8 or even beyond.

“I’ve been working on some new things, making some big changes to my approach and other technical work and things have just started to click I guess,” Normand says. “I’ve just got to go faster at the end (on approach) and carry more speed through it and I’ve finally figured out how to apply that to high jumping.”

Clearing 6-8 would qualify Normand for the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina, this summer. Turnbull believes Normand could also go to nationals in the long jump and triple jump.

“I better start fundraising,” Turnbull says, referring to the cost of sending Normand to the national meet. “He’s going to have a good year.”

Normand’s 6-6 mark in the high jump came this past Friday on the first day of the Summit Decathlon.

Normand says he initially planned to compete only in the high jump and long jump at the two-day multi-events meet at Summit.

But after winning both of those events and leading the field after the first five events he decided to compete in the entire 10-event decathlon.

Competing Saturday in five events he had never done before, Normand finished with 4,748 points to place ninth out of 42 athletes in his first decathlon.

“The coaches here (at Summit), they’ve helped me learn everything, especially Kevin Cornett has been a great help in javelin,” Normand says. “Erik (Jorgensen) and Phillip (Molebash) in pole vault, they taught me a lot.”

Normand says he was most concerned about running the 110-meter hurdles.

“I’ve never done those before,” he says. “I’ve seen people fall on those so that was definitely an experience there.”

Normand finished the hurdles — without falling — in 19.48 seconds, good for 19th place.

He placed ninth in the pole vault, clearing 11 feet in an event he had practiced only one day during the week of the decathlon.

“I got to come out here and learn them (new events) and that was a great experience,” Normand says. “I got to meet some really cool people here. It’s a great bonding experience. You come in here knowing nobody and you compete through all these events with them and get to know them pretty well. I’d be interested in another decathlon.”

Like his older sister Emma, a freshman sprinter at the University of Montana, Jack Normand wants to compete in track and field in college.

He has already visited Seattle University and has trips planned to Northern Arizona and the University of Idaho this month.

“My coaches are doing a great job of helping me out with all that stuff,” Normand says.

Turnbull says Normand’s 6-6 mark in the high jump will attract more college coaches, as well as his willingness to compete in events he has only recently tried for the first time.

“That speaks well about a kid’s character,” Turnbull says, “I’m excited for him. He’s just such a good kid. He’s so fun to coach.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0307, dwiley@bendbulletin.com.