Men's Track & Field
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Phone:
- 647-1222
| Women's Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year (2023) | |
| Women's Great Lakes Region Track and Field Coach of the Year (2023) | |
| Great Lakes Region Indoor Assistant Track Coach of the Year (2016) | |
| Cross Country Coach of the Year (2015, 2017) | |
| Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Coach of the Year (2015) | |
Kevin Sullivan began his fifth year as the director of track and field / cross country for the University of Michigan for the 2025-26 season, a role he began prior to the 2021-22 academic year. He was previously announced as head coach of the Michigan men's cross country program on July 17, 2014, and served as an assistant track and field coach for the distance events.
Sullivan by the Numbers
• Has led two athletes to Canadian Records (Aurora Rynda 600 meters indoor; Savannah Sutherland 400 meters indoor and 400 meter hurdles)
• Led Michigan cross country to Big Ten team titles in 2015 and 2017
• Led Michigan cross country to seventh at NCAAs in 2019, 10th in 2017 and 11th in 2015
• Has coached two national champions at Michigan (Mason Ferlic, 2016 steeplechase / Ben Flanagan, 2018 10,000 meters)
• Has coached or overseen athletes to 88 All-American citations, including 38 in track (14 first team), six from relays (2016, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 DMR and 4x400) and seven in cross country at Michigan
• In addition to the 16 Big Ten titles he won as a Michigan student-athlete, he has coached his athletes to or overseen 42 conference titles in track and cross country, including 29 track titles at Michigan
• Has coached his athletes to or overseen 63 all-conference honors (33 first-team, 29 second-team) at Michigan, plus another 20 such citations in cross country (nine first team, 11 second team)
• Has coached Brendan Herger (1,500m run) to a Big Ten Outdoor Freshman of the Year honor in 2025
AT MICHIGAN
• At the Penn Relays, the 4x800-meter relay team of Camden Law, Trent McFarland, Henry Johnson, and Brendan Herger broke a 39-year-old record and shaved more than three seconds off the previous standard with a time of 7:24.65 to finish second. The Wolverines captured five medals across both genders at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, including Caleb Jarema's second-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (8:42.53) and Savannah Sutherland's third straight Big Ten title in the 400-meter hurdles (55.37). Herger and McFarland represented Michigan distance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, both advancing to the finals in the 1,500-meter run and placing ninth (3:47.88) and 11th (3:47.94), respectively. Herger was the lone freshman in the field and was just 0.62 seconds behind the first place finisher. He was named the Big Ten Outdoor Freshman of the Year, the first Wolverine to earn the honor since Nick Willis in 2003. U-M sent six other individuals and one relay team to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with Savannah Sutherland's second career national championship in the 400-meter hurdles leading the effort. Sutherland won the title with a time of 52.46 to set the program, collegiate, conference, meet, and Canadian national record.  She is now just the second NCAA athlete to break 53 seconds in the event (Sydney McLaughlin, 52.75) and the third Wolverine to earn multiple individual national titles. Sutherland was named the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and a 2025 finalist for track and field's highest honor, The Bowerman. She is the first Bowerman finalist in program history and is the first female finalist to represent the Big Ten for the honor.
• Trent McFarland had an impressive sophomore season, setting the program record in the 800-meter run (1:47.22) before claiming the Big Ten 2025 Indoor Mile Run title (4:03.56). He set the mile run Big Ten Indoor Championships meet record with a 3:59.29 in the preliminary round, breaking the previous record of 4:00.56 set by Kevin Sullivan in 1998. McFarland ran four sub-four-minute miles in 2025. U-M claimed five additional medals at the Big Ten Championships across both genders, including Savannah Sutherland's first-place finish in the 400-meter dash (51.74) for the second straight year. A trio of Wolverines (Aasia Laurencin, 60-meter hurdles; Savannah Sutherland, 400-meter dash; Elizabeth Tapper, shot put) represented the Maize and Blue at the NCAA Indoor Championships, with Sutherland (fourth) and Laurencin (sixth) earning podium finishes. The women set three program records (Savannah Sutherland, 200- and 400-meter dash; Elizabeth Tapper, shot put) and two national records (Savannah Sutherland, Canada, 400-meter dash, 51.23; Aasia Laurencin, St. Lucia, 60-meter hurdles, 7.97).
• The Wolverines finished fifth at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships led by Nathan Lopez's 26th place finish (23:15.1). At the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, U-M finished sixth and was led by Luke Venhuizen's 22nd place finish (29:43.9). Venhuizen was named All-Region.
• Tom Brady capped his career with the 10,000-meter run program record (28:21.89), besting his personal record by 25 seconds and breaking the previous record of 28:25.94 set by Bill Donakowski in 1978. Five Wolverines took home Big Ten titles (Brady, 10,000-meter run, 29:19.27; Dubem Amene, 400-meter dash, 45.92; McFarland, 1,500-meter run, 3:43.59; Aasia Laurencin, 100-meter hurdles, 12.90; Savannah Sutherland, 400-meter hurdles, 55.01) at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, with Brady, Laurencin and Sutherland winning back-to-back titles in their respective events. The Maize and Blue was well represented at the NCAA East Preliminary Round, with 30 athletes competing and 10 advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. On the men's side, Brady's 15th-place finish in the 10,000-meter run (28:44.35) and Zane Forist's 14th-place finish in the discus throw (57.38m) led the way for the Wolverines. The pair earned second team All-America honors. The women saw three podium finishes and four All-America honors, with Sutherland finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles (53.26), Corinne Jemison finishing fifth in the discus throw (60.07m), Laurencin finishing sixth in the 100-meter hurdles (12.86), and Emma Yungeberg finishing 14th in the javelin throw (52.36m). Sutherland, Jemison and Yungeberg each set program records in their respective events. Sutherland's mark was also a Canadian national record.
• Tom Brady opened the 2024 indoor season with a new program record, setting the 5,000-meter run standard (13:33.83) at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. Brady bested the record two months later (13:24.16), with Nick Foster (mile, 3:54.48) and Dubem Amene (400-meter dash, 46.04) setting records of their own. The DMR team of Trent McFarland, Amene, Miles Brown, and Foster set a new standard of 9:19.33 at the Alex Wilson Invitational in the team's final meet before the Big Ten Indoor Championships. The Wolverines claimed five medals at the conference meet, including silver for the DMR and a pair of bronze medals for Brady (3,000-meter run, 7:57.85; 5,000-meter run, 13:58.15). Amene (DMR, 400-meter dash), Brady (5,000-meter run), Brown (DMR), Foster (mile, DMR) and McFarland (DMR) all advanced to the NCAA Indoor Championships. Foster's ninth-place finish in the mile led the team's effort. Savannah Sutherland (400-meter dash, 51.67) and Aasia Laurencin (60-meter hurdles, 8.01) each claimed Big Ten titles, with the women bringing four other medals back to Ann Arbor. The pair qualified for the NCAA Championships, earning podium finishes and first team All-America honors.
• The 2023 men's cross country team saw a second-place Big Ten finish, with Brady's third-place finish pacing the Wolverines. Brady earned first team Big Ten honors, while Owen MacKenzie and Caleb Jarema earned second-team honors. U-M finished third at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. Brady, Foster, MacKenzie and Luke Venhuizen were named All-Region selections for their performances. The team finished 19th at NCAAs, with Brady's 27th-place finish earning him All-America honors. Brady was named USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year and Big Ten Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
• In the 2022-23 outdoor season, the Wolverines earned the Big Ten Outdoor Championship for the first time since 2016 to sweep the indoor and outdoor titles for the sixth time in program history. The women claimed five individual titles (Ziyah Holman, 400-meter dash; Aasia Laurencin, 100-meter hurdles; Savannah Sutherland, 400-meter hurdles, Jemison, discus throw; and Aurora Rynda, 800-meter run). Jemison set a pair of program records in the discus throw (58.08m) and shot put (17.24m) while Holman set a pair of program records in the 200-meter dash (23.08) and the 400-meter dash (50.90). Four individuals and one relay team represented the Maize and Blue at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, with Sutherland's NCAA 400-meter hurdles title leading the team's effort. On the men's side, the Wolverines saw 14 top-eighth finishes and one event title (Brady, 10,000-meter run) to finish fifth as a team. Foster (1,500-meter run), Dubem Amene (400-meter dash), and Zane Forist (discus throw) all punched tickets to the NCAA Championships, with Foster's 21st place finish leading the team.
• Indoors in 2022-23, Sullivan led the Michigan women to the Big Ten team title, with three individual event champions and two champion relay teams. Michigan's men saw a sixth place team finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships as well as one event title and one relay title. Under Sullivan, four women, two men, and two relays qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships, with two first-team All-Americans in Aurora Rynda (800 meters) and Savannah Sutherland (400 meters) and five second-team All-American honors in Nick Foster (mile), the women's 4x400, Ziyah Holman (400 meters), Aasia Laurencin (60-meter hurdles), and the men's distance medley relay. Michigan athletes broke 13 school records during the indoor season.Â
• In 2021-22 in his first year as the director of track and field / cross country for both men and women, Sullivan led the Wolverine women to a fourth-place finish with three event titles and two silver medals at the Big Ten Indoor Championships and the Michigan men to sixth place with one event title and two runner-up finishes, and advanced four individual men, two individual women and a men's distance medley relay to the NCAA Indoor Championships. Cole Johnson (800 meters) and Aurora Rynda (800 meters) both earned first-team honors, as did the distance medley relay team of Tom Dodd, Dubem Amene, Miles Brown and Nick Foster. Michigan student-athletes broke six school records during the indoor regular season, including two in events (600 meters, 800 meters) he directly coached.
• Outdoors in 2021-22, the Michigan men finished sixth at Big Tens with an event title and two runner-up finishes and the Michigan women were seventh with an event title and two silver medal-winning efforts. Joshua Zeller went on to finish third in the 110-meter hurdles at NCAAs to lead four qualifiers for the men, while the women had four second-team All-Americans in Jemison (discus), Kayla Windemuller (steeplechase), Aasia Laurencin (100-meter hurdles) and Aurora Rynda (800 meters). Michigan student-athletes broke four school records during the outdoor season.
• In 2020-21, Sullivan's runners on the track combined for four All-America honors, six NCAA Championships appearances and four Big Ten medals. Indoors, Tom Dodd twice ran 3:57 at the NCAA Championships to earn first-team All-America honors, Devin Meyrer broke the 5,000-meter school record in 13:40.66 to earn second-team honors, and Brady earned second-team honors at 3,000 meters. Foster was Sullivan's top indoor Big Ten finisher with a bronze medal in the mile. Outdoors, Christian Hubaker was a second team All-American in the steeplechase, and was joined at outdoor nationals by Dodd at 1,500 meters and Plaetinck in the steeplechase. Foster was the outdoor Big Ten runner-up at 1,500 meters and Brady was the silver medalist at 10,000 meters, and Plaetinck was third in the steeplechase. Hubaker and Plaetinck were joined by Austin Remick and Jack Spamer at sub-nine minutes in the steeplechase, making it the deepest year for the event in Michigan history and placing the Wolverines among the deepest squads nationally.
• In 2020-21, Sullivan had runners represent Michigan at both the pandemic-delayed 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships in March 2021 and the regularly scheduled 2021 NCAA Cross Country Championships in November. Devin Meyrer represented Michigan as an individual in March and ran to All-America honors with a 24th-place finish. In the fall, Michigan finished 25th overall, led by 75th-place Brady. The Wolverines were the runners-up at the Big Ten Championships.
• In 2019-20, Sullivan guided the Michigan men to their best finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships since 1999 with a seventh-place showing -- 10 spots better than their pre-meet rank. Devin Meyrer led the way with a 16th-place overall individual finish for All-America honors. Jack Aho also earned All-America honors for the second year in a row with a 40th-place finish, and Isaac Harding just missed by four spots in a 44th-place effort. Sullivan's team also finished third at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional with Harding, Meyrer and Aho earning All-Region honors, along with Jordy Hewitt. Michigan was also third at the conference meet with Meyrer earning first team All-Big Ten honors and Aho making the second team.
• In 2019-20, Sullivan helmed a distance crew on the track that performed well despite the cancellation of the outdoor season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ben Hill scored in the mile at the Big Ten Indoor Championships for the second straight season, while Meyrer posted a sub-14 performance at 5,000 meters (13:56.80). His distance medley relay team also finished the winter ranked top-20 nationally.
• In 2018-19, Sullivan mentored a distance crew that sent six runners to the NCAA East Preliminaries, including three at 5,000 meters and two in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He had two men run 14 minutes or faster at 5,000 meters and two men crack nine minutes in the steeplechase, with Big Ten Championships scorers in the indoor mile (Ben Hill), outdoor steeplechase (Lewis Tate and Plaetinck), indoor 3,000 (Will Landowne and Aho, and outdoor 10,000 (Meyrer).
• In 2018-19, Sullivan led the Michigan men to a 19th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Powering the top-20 finish were All-American Aho and top-100 finisher John Tatter. Aho, Isaac Harding and Tatter all earned All-Great Lakes Region honors for the third-place Wolverines, and Jordy Hewitt was a second team All-Big Ten honoree for the fourth-place Wolverines at the conference meet.
• In 2017-18, Sullivan guided Ben Flanagan to the NCAA Outdoor Championships title at 10,000 meters, marking the first time since 1989 that a Michigan man had won the event at nationals. Flanagan's NCAA title came after winning the same event at the Big Ten Championships a month earlier, as one of two Sullivan-coached Wolverines to win conference crowns. He also coached former walk-on Aaron Baumgarten to the 5,000 meters title. Flanagan and Baumgarten were part of a senior class that combined to score 41 points between the Big Ten Indoor and Outdoor championship meets.
• In 2017-18, Sullivan led the U-M men to 10th place at the NCAA Cross Country Championships after starting the preseason unranked nationally. Flanagan earned All-America honors at nationals for the Wolverines after winning the NCAA Great Lakes Regional and earning first team All-Big Ten honors. Sullivan's squad finished runner-up at the Great Lakes Regional with four All-Region honorees, and they claimed the Big Ten title with three All-Big Ten selections and seven runners in the top-25.
• In 2017-18, Sullivan helped to guide a Michigan track and field and cross country program that was the only school in the conference to finish top-six at Big Tens in cross country, indoor and outdoor, and was the only school in the conference to score at the NCAA Championships in all three sports.
• In 2016-17, Sullivan mentored the trio of Ned Willig, Will Sheeran and Connor Mora to sub-four-minute miles in the same race at the Boston U. John Thomas Terrier Classic, with Willig ultimately going on to earn second team All-America honors. Willig was also a double-scorer for Sullivan at the Big Ten Outdoor championships at both 800 and 1,500 meters, while Mora scored twice in the steeplechase and at 5,000 meters. He also coached Baumgarten to a double-scoring performance at Big Ten Indoors at 3,000 and 5,000 meters, and advanced seven men to the NCAA East Preliminaries.
• In 2016-17, Sullivan guided four Michigan men to All-Region honors at the NCAA Great Lakes Cross Country Regional en route to a fifth-place team finish, and Baumgarten to All-Big Ten honors as Michigan took fifth at the Big Ten Championships.
• In 2015-16, Sullivan coached Michigan's first national champion since 2007 when he guided Mason Ferlic to an NCAA title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, just the second steeplechase title-winner in program history. Sullivan helped the Wolverines to the program's best season in 20 years, earning a runner-up finish during the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and finishing fourth during the indoor season, two points shy of a second-place showing. That culminated in Michigan's first top-15 national finish since 1997. Mid-distance and distance athletes totaled 46 of U-M's 90.5 points at the Big Ten meet, a program high since 2008, and Wolverine runners totaled four medals (gold: steeplechase, 5K, 10K; silver: steeplechase) while scoring in the steeplechase and at 800, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, and became the first school in Big Ten history to sweep the steeplechase, 5K and 10K since Wisconsin in 1996. At the NCAA East Preliminary Round, Sullivan's 10 athletes made up half of the team's declarations, a program-record 20 in total. He advanced athletes to the NCAA Championships at 5,000 and 10,000-meters, in addition to the steeplechase
• In 2015-16, Sullivan coached Ferlic to his third, fourth and fifth career Big Ten titles during his senior season, helping him defend two conference crowns, while also guiding him under the Olympic standard for the 3,000-meter steeplechase (8:30 standard; time of 8:27.77). During his final year in maize and blue, Ferlic became the first athlete in U-M history to receive votes for the Bowerman Award, track and field's highest honor.
• In 2015-16, in his second fall at the helm of the cross country program, Sullivan coached the team to its first sweep of the Big Ten and NCAA Great Lakes Regional titles with a top-10 NCAA finish since his senior season in 1997. U-M placed three in the top 10 and all five scorers in the top 25 to take the program's first conference crown since 1998, and went on to finish ninth at the national championships, the program's best finish since 2003.
• In 2014-15 in his first year back in Ann Arbor, Sullivan helped the Wolverines to their best conference finish since 2009 during the indoor season, thanks largely in part to the Maize and Blue being the only program to score in every middle-distance and distance event (800m, mile, 3K, 5K, DMR), a feat they duplicated during the 2016 indoor seeason. He pushed Ferlic to his first career Big Ten titles, winning the 5K indoors and taking home a conference crown in his premier event, the 3,000m steeplechase, during the outdoor campaign.
• In 2014-15, under his guidance, the Wolverines qualified five distance athletes totaling seven entries across three events for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, where Sullivan helped both Ferlic and fifth-year senior Morsi Rayyan reach the NCAA Outdoor Championships. There, Rayyan picked up USTFCCCA honorable mention recognition, while Ferlic earned second team All-America honors.
• In 2014-15, he guided U-M to its fifth consecutive appearance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in his first season, and its best performance in more than a decade. Ferlic took 13th to become the program's first back-to-back All-American since Nate Brannen in 2003-04. Sullivan coached the Maize and Blue to 11th place, the best finish in program history under a first-year head coach.
• The most decorated runner in school history, Sullivan was a 16-time Big Ten champion and a 14-time NCAA All-American during his Michigan career. He won four NCAA titles, claiming top honors in the mile (1995 and 1998) and the distance medley relay (1995) during the indoor season, and the 1,500m run at the 1995 outdoor championships. Sullivan was a nine-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year, earning the honor each of his four years in cross country, three times in indoor track and field and twice outdoors.
• In cross country, Sullivan was a four-time NCAA All-American (1993-95, 1997), four-time NCAA regional champion, four-time Big Ten champion, four-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year and a four-time all-conference selection. He was also the 1993 Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
• Sullivan graduated from the University of Michigan in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. Academically, Sullivan was a seven-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, and was the 1998 Spring At-Large Academic All-American of the Year. He was a recipient of the 1998 NCAA Top VIII Award. He was Michigan's male recipient of the 1998 Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor. Sullivan was inducted into the University of Michigan Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2006.
BEFORE MICHIGAN
Sullivan was a three-time Olympian for Canada, competing in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games. He placed fifth in the 1,500m run at the 2000 Olympics and is Canada's record holder in three events: 1,500m (3:31.71), mile (3:50.26) and 3,000m (7:41.61). Sullivan was one of the world's top competitors in the 1,500m run for nearly a decade, winning a silver medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and 2001 Goodwill Games, and earned the bronze medal in the 2000 IAAF Grand Prix Final. Overall, he participated in 22 World Championships in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.
Since finishing his competitive running career, Sullivan has remained involved in the running community. He was the operations manager for the Florida State University track and field team during the 2010 season. Sullivan was responsible for preparing travel, entering student-athletes in competition and assisted with the administration of three home events for the Seminoles. He left FSU to open up Capital City Runners, a full-service specialty running store, of which he is the owner and manager.
Sullivan stayed close to the Big Ten Conference competition as an analyst for Big Ten Network with various track and field programming. He served as an editorial research assistant for CTV Sports (Agincourt, Ontario) during the 2012 London Olympics.
He was a volunteer assistant coach for the women's cross country program at Florida State University in 2007 following a stint a volunteer coach at the University of Illinois with the women's programs (2003-07) and men's program's (2002-03). He also spent four seasons as a volunteer coach with the Michigan men's cross country and track programs from 1999-2002.
