Long before he received a phone call regarding a new candidate in the mix for cross country head coach at Michigan, Mason Ferlic was well aware of who Kevin Sullivan was.
The most decorated Wolverine in program history, Sullivan was renowned in the distance world for his triumphs in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Sullivan excelled in a wide range of middle- and long-distance races, including three trips to the Olympics, four NCAA titles, 16 Big Ten Titles and 14 All-American honors. He was the kind of individual athlete that guys like Ferlic, a former co-captain of the Michigan cross country team, would study with awe as they tried to replicate some of that success during their own time in Ann Arbor.
“(Me and my teammates) would pull up old NCAA meets of Sully and you could tell from his running form he was very distinct. He was super toey and springy, just a machine out there,” Ferlic told The Michigan Daily. “His range was also legendary, a guy that was top ten in cross country every year and also an indoor mile champion. … I can’t even imagine that.”
So in 2014 when Sullivan decided to return to Michigan to fill the new head coach vacancy, he was met with nothing but praise from the runners he was soon to coach, including then-junior and captain Ferlic.
“Track and field director Jerry Clayton at the time called up some of us senior captains and said, ‘We’re in the hunt for a new cross country head coach, one of the front runners is Kevin Sullivan,’ ” Ferlic said. “I think a lot of us were really excited and entertained by the idea. ”
For the athletes, it was a chance to learn from and compete for one of the best Canadian runners of all time, a man many of them idolized since arriving on campus. For Sullivan, it presented a different kind of opportunity. His athletic legacy as an individual in every event — from the 1,500 to the 12,000 meters — was already more than secure. But when he became the head coach at the very same institution that gave rise to his illustrious career, Sullivan was given the opportunity of imparting those same characteristics on the next generation of collegiate athletes to create a new legacy — one that isn’t all about him.
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Sullivan first discovered his natural talent for running long distances in the fourth grade, after a dominant performance in his school’s annual field day. The experience prompted him to join the local track club in the sixth grade, where, at the age of 14, Sullivan famously ran 800 meters in 1:53, a record for his age at the time.
“Being good at it initially got me into (running),” Sullivan told The Daily. “Sometimes, running in particular is a bit of an acquired taste … winning definitely helped.”
While winning drew him in, it was the finer details of distance running that made him fall in love. From a young age, he absorbed information on the training of the greats of his era, learning what workouts they did and why, and seeing what he could incorporate into his own workouts to improve. A future engineering major at Michigan, Sullivan always loved the science and the math behind what made the greats great. But it was the individuality of the sport that most stood out.
Running, at its core, is an individual sport. While it’s true that only a team can win a National championship outright each year, it’s the individual performances that most people remember. On the race track and in training, each runner is responsible for themself. And Sullivan, a self-proclaimed introvert, embraced it all with open arms.
“I like the idea that my results are focused on myself, I don’t have to rely on somebody else to get results,” Sullivan said. “I like that it’s a different kind of pressure.”
So naturally, it was what he did on his own that set Sullivan apart. During his time at Michigan, Sullivan put into practice the pioneering plyometric warmups he had picked up from the clubs he ran for in Canada. His warmup routine took up to 30 minutes longer in practice than many of his college teammates, as he approached the average workout the same way he did a race. He counted only on himself to hone his abilities the way he was uniquely taught to.
The result of his additional labor was a near-perfect running form that made him stand out in every congested pack of elite runners. Combined with his extra work in the weight room and disciplined life outside of the facilities, Sullivan established an image that led to words other than “human” being thrown around as a descriptor.
“He was a machine,” Sullivan’s former Wolverines teammate Don McLaughlin told The Daily. “When he would fall asleep, he would let out one gigantic ‘Sully Snore’, and our (team’s) joke was that that’s when he would take in all his oxygen for the night. … God-honest truth he was not human.”
Oxygen, maybe, but distance running was what Sullivan truly lived and breathed, and it set him apart from all those around him. He was the type of teammate that isn’t standoffish by nature, but has a work ethic so intimidating that it made them hard to approach in the moment. His unique fascination with, and dedication to, the more gritty details of the sport, paired with his insatiable drive, is what allowed him to soar in a sport so individualistic. That same fascination brought him back to coach at the program that springboarded his career. But this time, in order to succeed, Sullivan had to worry about more than just himself.
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Sullivan began work as a volunteer assistant coach immediately after graduating, while he prepared for his professional career to take off. He stayed on staff with Michigan from 1999 until 2002 before leaving for the women’s program at Illinois through 2006. Following that was a brief stint at Florida State in 2007. All of these volunteer positions acquainted the runner with contributing off the track, but coaching was never Sullivan’s focus in the early 2000s.
Sullivan focused instead on making history.
Sullivan competed for Canada in the Olympics in 2000, 2004 and 2008. It was during this time period that he set the Canadian records in the 1,500-meter, the mile and the 3,000-meter — records he still holds today. Throughout these years of competition, his own training was the top priority, but Sullivan admits he always kept the prospect of coaching simmering on the back burner.
“I’ve always been fascinated with coaching philosophy and the science behind coaching,” Sullivan said. “I was in these volunteer roles and it grew to a point of, if I had an opportunity (to coach), I’d want to try it.”
By 2014, Sullivan felt he had attained all he could through individual performance, but not all he could from the sport. He took the job at Michigan as head men’s cross country coach and assistant distance coach for track and field, and it was time for him to apply his knowledge once again. It is often difficult for dominant individual athletes to come back and coach the same sport they once excelled at by doing things their own hyper-individualistic way, but it makes everything a lot easier when the athlete-turned-coach has a plan. And Sullivan, forever a lover of the numbers, had one from the jump.
Plan is not the right word, though. It was more like a formula. Ferlic recalls him and his teammates referring to the early workouts Sullivan would give them as “Dartboard workouts,” where he would seemingly throw arbitrary times and distances down on paper to see what would stick. But there was a method to the madness.
“At the time you’d think it was all very random, ‘Why this rep or this pace?’ But then you look and see there’s a pattern,” Ferlic said. “You’d add it all up, and you could see the purpose behind it.”
Soon, the workouts started to click, and the team wasn’t far behind. In just his second year as head coach Sullivan guided the Wolverines, led by Ferlic, to outright victory in both the Big Ten Championships and the Great Lakes Regional. It was a feat that hadn’t been done by Michigan since 1997, Sullivan’s very own senior year at the university. Sullivan had been named Big Ten Cross Country Athlete of the Year four times as an athlete, but Big Ten Coach of the Year was a new accolade he collected for the first time in 2015.
Thus, a new era of Sullivan triumph was born. As an athlete, his accolades were accomplished through vigorous research and training that set him apart from everyone, including his own teammates. As a coach, that attention to detail is just as crucial, but it’s the ability to share the little things between himself and his team that defines Sullivan’s accomplishments in a new role.
“We had a very transparent and open relationship, which is often rare at the college level,” Ferlic said. “We worked really well together and he really valued my input, which was a big part of the reason for my success under him … just having his perspective (was crucial).”
Since 2014 Sullivan has led the Wolverines to two Big Ten Cross Country Championships, two top-ten finishes at Cross Country Nationals, two individual athletes to National titles in track and field and overseen 88 All-American honors and 63 All-Conference honors as he continues to carve out his new legacy. Many of this honors came after he earned himself a promotion prior to the 2021-22 academic year, making him the director of track and field and cross country.
Most recently, in the 2024 outdoor track and field season, he played a role in guiding two budding stars at Michigan, sophomore Trent McFarland and freshman Brendan Herger, to the 1,500-meter finals at Nationals. Similar to what Ferlic did 10 years prior, the boys picked the brain of the seasoned veteran they get to call ‘coach,’ who was once again more than happy to use his success as a lesson for those after him.
“(Sullivan) was able to run us through all of the situations he’s been in and give us advice on how to succeed,” McFarland told The Daily. “It was great to have him there and ask him how he thought it would pan out.”
Neither of the athletes won the race that day, but the two underclassmen gained experience facing stakes of the highest level — timeless guidance from a man who’s conquered them on more than one occasion. It proves that what Sullivan has to offer as a coach isn’t merely the knowledge he’s gained from the greats he studied or his own contemporaries. He’s also a successful coach because of his own experiences as a superb athlete.
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Running in the 3,000-meter steeplechase final at Nationals in 2016, the then-senior Ferlic knew he had one more shot at national glory before his collegiate career came to a close. Just as he had since he began college, he sought advice from Sullivan the day of his final race as a Wolverine. Only this time, he wasn’t watching Sullivan from behind a screen, but listening to his coach in his ear.
“It felt good, it felt like I could trust everything he said (in that moment),” Ferlic said. “The guy didn’t lose.”
And on that day, neither did Ferlic. He secured his first National championship as an athlete in dominating fashion from start to finish, while Sullivan claimed his first as a coach. The pair still remains close years after Ferlic’s graduation. When he began his professional career with Nike, Ferlic ran under Sullivan for three more years as he sought out his coach’s guidance once more in the professional sphere. When he started out his career, Ferlic admired the faraway feats of Sullivan the athlete, but it was Sullivan the coach, Sullivan the mentor and collaborator, that made the difference in the long run.
