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Sullivan emerges as top distance runner at TOHS
Senior ready to lead revamped Lancer girls' cross country team
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com
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"There is no greater feeling I've had at Thousand Oaks than winning the state championship my sophomore year," Sullivan said. "It was just amazing.
"I remember our whole team being huddled together after the race waiting to see if our time was good enough to finish in first. When we found out that we had won, our team just went crazy. I really hope that we can do that again this season."
After finishing in seventh place individually with a time of 18:24 in the 2005 State Championship in Fresno, Sullivan was thrust into the No. 1 runner position during her junior year.
The problem for Thousand Oaks last year was that Sullivan was one of the only runners returning from the state title team, and the squad had a difficult time finding success.
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Another new addition to the team since Sullivan's sophomore season came in the form of coaching changes. Robert Radnoti left TOHS after the '05 season to coach at Pepperdine. Last year, Sarah Burns served as an interim coach.
Shawn Morris will take the head coaching reigns this season. So far, Morris has liked what he's seen from Sullivan.
"Obviously she has a lot of physical talent," Morris said. "She is the type of runner that doesn't have to train that much to be fast.
"I really like her mental approach to running. She is very mature for her age, and I like her demeanor and how she talks with the rest of the team. Her mental mindset and her physical talent have produced a very fast girl."
The 17-year-old Sullivan first started running cross country when she was in the fifth grade, after watching her older brother James run for the Thousand Oaks Flyers youth track club.
She decided to join the Flyers, too, and a few years later started to make waves with TOHS in her inaugural season.
"Coach Radnoti was always telling me I could do better, but I guess I just didn't believe him," Sullivan said. "Then my freshman year against Calabasas I surprised myself when I finished only 10 seconds back from our top runner. That's when I started to realize I could run a lot faster."
Sullivan credits a lot of her early success to Radnoti.
"He had a lot of funny sayings to help us, such as, 'In order to be fast you have to run fast,'" Sullivan said. "What he meant by that is, in order to be one of the top runners you have to put in the hard work and really push yourself."
Although Radnoti has left, Sullivan is quick to point out that she has enjoyed training with Morris. "I like working with Coach Morris because he seems to really listen to us," Sullivan said. "At the start of the year he sent us a sheet of goals, and on one of the pages he asked us what he could do to be a better coach to us. I really appreciated that."
One of Morris' biggest tasks this year will be making sure Sullivan stays healthy. Sullivan missed about four months of training between the end of the 2006 cross country season and the beginning of the '07 track and field season due to a knee injury.
Morris said he's trying to have the team run more grass courses to keep Sullivan and the rest of the squad healthy.
"I'm not running much different now, even though I had the injury," Sullivan said. "I do ice the knee whenever I can and rest maybe one day a week, but other than that, everything is normal and everything feels healthy."
Sullivan said she has made many goals for herself this season, including running a meet time under 18 minutes (her current best is 18:02), having the team win league and state titles and being a good team captain.
"This year I am trying to get out of my protective shell and talk with more people on the team, especially the freshmen," Sullivan said.
"I tell them that cross country is more than just an individual sport of who came in first, who came in second and so on. Everyone runs together on this team every day and gets to know each other very well on the field and off."
Although she still has her senior year in front of her, Sullivan is hoping to one day attend college at BYU. Until then, Morris is excited to watch her finish her career at Thousand Oaks.
"I moved from Minnesota to Thousand Oaks a little over a year ago, and when I told my friends up north I was taking the job here they couldn't believe it," Morris said. "Thousand Oaks' program is so good that people have heard about it in Minnesota. Kaitlyn is one of those reasons why. It's going to be a thrill to coach her."