ACTON — Acton-Boxboro senior miler James Sullivan, who also plays bass guitar in a band called “Third World Thunder” — genre: “weird rock,” he says — has come from pretty far out to take the lead.
His winning time of 4:15.33 last Sunday at the MIAA Division 1 Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center was 20 seconds faster than his fastest indoor mile last season, and the sixth-fastest high school indoor mile in the country this season.
Restless to go to the front during a slowly paced opening 800 meters, Sullivan was restrained by A-B coach Brian Crossman’s reminder before the race about Sullivan’s appreciation for good science. Sullivan plans to major in chemistry or biochemistry at Bowdoin College.
“You lose energy when you’re breaking the molecules out front,” said Sullivan after smashing through all particles of resistance and ripping through the final 800 meters in 2:03 to win by more than four seconds over second-place Mike O’Donnell of Methuen.
The Acton-Boxboro boys, reigning Division 1 outdoor champs, won the program’s first-ever Division 1 indoor title, finishing five points ahead of both Lowell and Newton North in a meet decided by the final relay.
Sullivan, whose dad Mark played basketball and golfed for Lowell High (Class of 1975), and whose grandfather James is a former Lowell city manager, heads into the MIAA All-State Meet this coming Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center as the top-seeded miler.
He has carefully studied the second-seeded miler, senior Wesley Gallagher of Pembroke, who was the All-State outdoor mile champ last spring, the Mass. Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the Year last fall, and the Division 3 indoor mile champ last week in 4:17.09.
“He’s been good since a while ago. I’ve always been looking (up) at him,” says Sullivan, who has never raced head-to-head against Gallagher. “The fact I have a chance to beat him … it’s going to be interesting.”
(Not competing this coming Sunday due to injury will be Peabody’s Nick Christensen, who last month ran 4:12 during an open meet at BU).
Sullivan this indoor season has run the mile three times: 4:32, then 4:19, then 4:15. His 4:19.34 was run in a non-scoring meet against Wayland at the Reggie Lewis on Jan. 11, breaking the Dual County League record of 4:22.2 set by Alberto Salazar in 1976. A few weeks later, Sullivan met Salazar, three-time New York City Marathon champ (1980-82) and 1982 Boston Marathon winner, while attending the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix at the Reggie Lewis.
The moment he gets out of bed in the morning, Sullivan knows from how his legs feel whether he will race fast that day. He knew this past Sunday would be a great day.
“I’m surprised a school like Arkansas didn’t see that 4:15 and start calling him up. That’s a great time,” says Crossman, a former Division 3 All-American quarter-miler at Fitchburg State who went on to run for the U.S. in international meets.
“I love Bowdoin,” says Sullivan.
He filled out the online questionnaire for Bowdoin athletics last April and attended Polar Bears cross country and track coach Peter Slovenski’s summer camp. Sullivan was coming off an outdoor season in which he finished third in the 800 in the Division 1 meet (1:57.14), and then 22nd in the All-State Meet (2:01.34).
Sullivan noticed Bowdoin’s interest in him increased during this past cross country season, which concluded with his sixth-place in the Division 1 All-States, after finishing 73rd as a junior. The 2012 MIAA Division 1 indoor mile champ ran the 1,000 last winter and finished ninth, failing to qualify for All-States.
Sullivan attributes his radical improvement to a meticulous training program drawn up by A-B distance coach Liz Owen. “I’m more focused on the nitty-gritty,” he says.
“He’s improved exponentially,” says Crossman. “I remember him as a freshman with those long loping strides, like a little Bambi trying to fill into his body. He’s just physically matured.”
Sullivan’s dad Mark is a financial systems software consultant who knows his son’s stats. His mom Betsy is an IT manager who thinks Third World Thunder, which has played local high school gigs, sounds pretty good.
“I’m the mom. I’m easily impressed,” she says.
Inspired by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones’ mandolin playing, Sullivan also plays mandolin. “I listen to weird stuff,” he says. “Like a combination of shoegazing and progressive, I guess.”
His sister Erin, 22, who graduated from A-B and Kalamazoo (Mich.) College, is in South Korea teaching with the English Program in Korea (EPIK).
His dad’s brother Chris, who now lives in Concord, N.H., won a New England high jump championship in 1985 as a Lowell kid at St. John’s Prep. Sullivan’s grandparents James and Anne still live in Lowell.
Follow David Pevear at Twitter.com/merganser10
