Chatham High School’s Jack Kulp Breaks School’s 500-Yard Swim Race Record

After a tough workout with his club team Lifetime Swim Metro on Thursday, Chatham High School (N.J.) sophomore swimmer Jack Kulp lined up at the starting block to compete in the 500-yard freestyle race against Scotch Plains-Fanwood.

Kulp, who holds a personal record of 4:41 with Lifetime, felt confident that he would eclipse Chatham’s school record of 4:49, previously set by Kyle Beebe, now swimming at D3 Bates College, in 2022.

Not to be denied, Kulp shattered the former record with a time of 4:48:01, helping a loaded Cougar squad defeat Scotch Plains-Fanwood, 128-42, at Jersey Aquatic Center in New Providence, New Jersey.

“During the race, I did not feel my best,” Kulp recalled. “I was sore and tired. But when I finished, I felt great. Once I saw my time, I was super happy.”

Kulp noted that he has been swimming since he was seven or eight years old. He also has played lacrosse for a number of years. But he broke his clavicle (collar bone) playing the sports last year and put a lot of thought into just concentrating on swimming.

This year, he said lacrosse, a sport in which he really enjoyed, is now in the rear-view mirror. Kulp has been focusing on his grueling swimming preparation, which consistent of 17 weekly hours of practice, plus extra time in the weightroom in order to excel at the sport and one day hit the waters at a Division I college.

“I decided to make my swimming my main sports,” he said. “Over this past summer, I really started to love swimming. I knew I was going to have to make the difficult decision of sticking to one sport, so I did.”

Everything has been going according to plan since then, per Kulp.

As far as brotherly love goes, Charlie, a junior swimmer at Chatham High School, has already committed to DI Duke University, a college where Jack said he is aspiring to compete for, and study business at, one day. For now, the Kulp brothers train together every opportunity that they get.

Jack said that they have a healthy competitive relationship, pushing each other to the limits all the time. In fact, the younger Kulp said that he feels he has yet reached his potential, with a lot of time to improve over the next two-plus years.

“I definitely do have a high celling,” said Kulp, whose top club event is the 1000-meter race. “One of my goals before the high school season began was to break the record. It didn’t happen last year, but I did it this year.”

Meanwhile, beating his personal 500-yard record and winning are of utmost importance to Kulp, who credited his respective coaching staffs for making him and the swimmers on his teams even more gifted, especially Chatham.

“We have a coach that really cares about our team,” Kulp said of Cougar head coach Laura Hartnett. “She’s made the swimmers who do it for fun better. We have a lot of depth, and have really talented top swimmers, like senior Jack Bingham (West Point commit) and junior Ryan O’Day,” to name a few.

Additionally, Kulp said that Asher Phipps, senior head coach at Lifetime Swim Metro, has a lot to do with his personal improvement as well as his club’s improved overall performance.

So, what is next for Kulp? He said colleges cannot officially recruit him until August of this year, but that has not stopped him from giving a full throttle effort at every turn.

“I feel like I am kind of hitting my stride now,” he said, with an eye on breaking the 500-yard record again and again. “This year is a big year for me (for recruiting). I’ve been training a lot, and harder than I ever did before.”

Chatham host Morristown Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Jersey Aquatic Center.

— Jerry Del Priore

Photo: Jennifer Kulp.