Johnson, Sullivan Tabbed Michigan Big Ten Medal of Honor Recipients
3/24/1998 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Cross Country, Men's Track & Field, Women's Swimming & Diving
ANN ARBOR, Mich. --Â Positive representation of the University of Michigan in the classroom, the community and the athletic realms over their collegiate careers serves as the distinguishing feature of the 1998 Michigan Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor recipients, Kim Johnson (Richardson, Texas/J.J. Pearce HS) and Kevin Sullivan (Brantford, Ontario/North Park).
The Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor is presented annually to the graduating male and female student-athlete at each conference member institution who have attained the greatest proficiency in scholarship, service and athletics. Johnson and Sullivan will be honored during the Michigan Athletic Department's Academic Achievement Awards Banquet April 6.
Johnson has been a highly visible student-athlete at the University of Michigan.
A member of the Wolverines women's swimming and diving program, Johnson has represented Michigan at four NCAA National Championships, helping the team to four top-seven finishes over her career, including a second-place finish at the 1995 NCAA Championship. She is an eight-time NCAA All-America award recipient. At the Big Ten Conference level, Johnson earned nine conference titles, including four straight 400-meter freestyle relay championships and three consecutive 200 freestyle and 800 freestyle relay titles. A four-year All-Big Ten Conference award recipient, Johnson was part of four Big Ten team titles won by the Wolverines.
Johnson is enrolled in the Division of Kinesiology as a sports management and communications major and has been a Michigan Athletic Academic Achievement award winner all four years. She is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten Conference award winner and has been honored by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America three times with the group's All-Academic designation. Johnson has earned both Class Honors and Academic Dean's List citations.
Away from the pool and the classroom, Johnson has been involved in a variety of activities. She participated in the University of Michigan Leadershape program in 1995Â and served as a facilitator at the 1997 session. Johnson sits on the board of Project Serve and is a three-year member of the M-PACT education committee. She has been active with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee as well as as a student-athlete seminars and educational programming. Johnson was a fall 1997 inductee into the J.J. Pearce High School (Texas) Hall of Fame.
The accomplishments of Sullivan as a runner and a student are the standard by which future Michigan student-athletes will be judged.
A civil and environmental engineering major, Sullivan is a four-time recipient of the Michigan Athletic Academic Achievement award. He was a member of the 1997 GTE Academic All-America Spring At-Large third team and a 1998 GTE Academic All-District IV Fall/Winter At-Large first-team award recipient. He is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection in both cross country and track and field.
The impressive academic credentials are surpassed by an athletic career that has been a constant assault on the Michigan record books. His four individual titles at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships is an achievement matched by only two other conference runners. As a true freshman in 1994, Sullivan was a member of the Wolverine distance medley relay team that broke the world record. He became the first Michigan track and field athlete to win three NCAA national championships in one year when he claimed the indoor mile, outdoor 1,500-meter run and indoor distance medley relay titles as a sophomore. Following his 1998 NCAA title in the indoor mile run, Sullivan was selected the Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year by the Track and Field Coaches Association.
Sullivan holds four cross country and eight track and field NCAA All-America citations. With just the outdoor track season remaining, Sullivan has already accumulated the NCAA indoor mile meet record, nine Big Ten Conference track titles, and league records in the indoor mile, outdoor mile and 3,000-meter run. He has twice been named Big Ten Indoor Track Athlete of the Year and was the 1995 Big Ten Indoor Track Athlete of the Championship. Sullivan is the current Canadian National indoor mile record holder.
Away from books and running, Sullivan has joined teammates in visits to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and has assisted with the Mott Children's Camp for terminally ill children. He has involved himself with student-athlete seminars and educational programming.
Players Mentioned
