After a promising first year of cross-country as a sophomore last year, Sean Sullivan knew if he dedicated more time to training this past summer that he would see even better results this past season.

That’s exactly what happened.

Sullivan had a huge breakout junior season at Rutherford this fall, highlighted by victories in the Colonial Division of the the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference Championships at Garret Mountain in 16:49, the top time of the day by 16 seconds), and at the North Jersey, Sec. 2 Group 2 Championships at Greystone on 16:29.2.

Last year, Sullivan was 20th at the sectional meet.

The sectional triumph qualified Sullivan for the state Group 2 Championships, where he placed a very strong 14th in 16:43.

Sullivan had several other impressive performance during the season. Among them was a second place finish in the C Division race at the Bergen Group Championships at Darlington Park in a personal best 16:09, and a 19th place finish at the Bergen County Meet of Champions in 16:14.