Highland Park senior Noam Kulbak has long loved math and science.
“Something about it clicks in my brain,” Kulbak said. “I like architecture and engineering. When I was probably 3 years old, I started building things. I’ve been building things my entire life.”
Kulbak has built an impressive academic resume — he has a weighted 4.65 GPA — as well as a terrific body of work as a diver.
“My parents say that I am a better student than I am a diver,” he said. “I don’t think that’s true, but I do take academics seriously because I know that I’m not going to have this after college, and I need to look out for my future.”
Kulbak has a bright future in and out of the pool. The Penn State commit and aspiring mechanical engineer began diving in fifth grade.
“I took it seriously as a kid, but I was just doing it to do it,” he said. “In eighth grade, I went to the state meet in 2020. I saw the divers, and I was like, ‘I want to be like that. I want to go DI. I want to win state.’ And I’ve made all those things happen.”
Kulbak accomplished the last item on that checklist on Saturday when he scored 531.30 points to win the state championship at FMC Natatorium in Westmont. He trailed Rolling Meadows senior Kyren Whiting by 1.3 points after the preliminary rounds Friday but nailed all three dives Saturday.
Nazareth junior Cooper Kosanovich was second with 508.85 points, and Whiting finished third with 502.30.
Kulbak is just the second Highland Park diver to win a state title. He joins John Robbins, who won in 1959.
“His last three dives were awesome,” Highland Park diving coach Jonathan Roby said. “We kind of stacked his last two with a lot of (degree of difficulty). We feel like he could hit those dives, and we knew he was going to need them — and he came through, which was awesome.”
Roby was a three-time state medalist for Glenbrook North, finishing second in 2009 and 2010. Under his mentorship, Kulbak also won three medals, finishing fifth as a sophomore and second as a junior.
But Kulbak surpassed Roby by taking his advice and focusing on form rather than flash.
“It wasn’t about improving the difficulty of my dives,” Kulbak said. “It was keeping the same dives but fine-tuning them.
“I actually had the exact same dives and order this year that I did last year, but everything was just a little more sharp. I compete a hard list, but (the focus was) making the same dives I did last year a little bit better.”
Kulbak did work on harder dives during the season, but in the postseason he stuck with his bread-and-butter.
“My coach preaches that it’s a numbers game, and obviously harder difficulty can pay off, but it’s riskier,” Kulbak said. “So it was just about staying consistent. I had one miss in the meet. It was my fourth dive, one of my hardest ones. I think I got 4s and 5s on it, so that was a little bit tough, but it was good coming back.”
The comeback was fueled by more than just physical talent.
“He is just rock solid mentally,” Roby said. “It doesn’t really matter what we throw at him. I can throw any scenario at him. He’ll still get up on the board, and he’ll do the best dive that he can do. It’s just consistent.”
Kulbak has consistently set his sights on winning a state title.
“When I got on the team freshman year, I knew from the second I got on the pool deck that that was what my goal was,” he said. “To this day, it’s been my biggest dream in life.
“That sounds a little bit cliché, but it really has.”
The pursuit of his dream wasn’t easy, of course, and Kulbak didn’t have plans, or the energy, to do any celebrating Saturday night.
“I’ve got 10 hours of sleep the past three nights combined,” he said. “Nerves have been crazy. I’m running on pure adrenaline right now, and there’s no better feeling than ending high school this way.”
It’s the end of a partnership of sorts for Roby and Kulbak, whose high school careers share many similarities. For instance, Roby has the 11-dive record at Maine West’s pool, while Kulbak has the six-dive record. Kulbak will head to the Big Ten, just like Roby, who competed for Minnesota.
“He is ready for the next level,” Roby said. “It’s been a blessing having him on the pool deck and on the board.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
