Hulst attended Laguna Beach High School, where he ran cross country and track. Originally, he intended to play tennis, but excelled in his first cross country season and continued from there, running the 2-mile in 9:04.6 (min:sec) as a freshman. At Laguna Beach HS, his coach was Len Miller, who followed a high-mileage coaching philosophy typical of the 1970s and would later coach Hulst at UC-Irvine. Hulst is well-remembered in the running community for his high-risk training regimen. At the age of 15, Hulst logged 100 miles per week of training, and would often get up at 5:00 AM to run between 10 and 13 miles before classes started at 8:30. His morning runs would start from Emerald Bay to Corona del Mar and back, and would frequently wear a 10-pound lead vest. During the course of his high school career, a competitive rivalry ensued between Hulst and Loara High School standout Ralph Serna. At the 1974 National Postal cross country meet, Hulst placed second in a field of the best high school runners in the country, behind only Serna. Arguably, his most famous high school victory was at the 1975 California Interscholastic Federation state 2-mile championship race, in which he finished in first place in a state high school record time of 8:44.9 ahead of Serna; both finished under Rich Kimball's record 8:46.6 set in the previous year's meet. During his senior year of high school, Hulst was called up to the U.S. national squad for the 1976 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he won the men's junior race. As a result, he appeared in a picture on the cover of the May 1976 issue of "Runner's World". Inspired by Dave Wottle, Hulst wore a cap while racing in high school. During that year's track season, he lowered his CIF-SS and state 2-mile record further to 8:44.6 at the CIF-SS Masters Meet and won his second consecutive state championship in the event.