VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Credit- Stanford Athletics

Jericho

Running-cross country/track & field

Inducted 2022

In a career that was as unexpected as it was jaw-dropping, Erin Sullivan Lane piled up Vermont, New England and national championships as a high schooler on her way to earning All-American honors at Stanford University.

The same season she began her competitive running career — as a sophomore newcomer to the Mount Mansfield Union High School track team — Sullivan blazed her way to a New England championship in the 1,600 meters and never looked back. 

As a junior, Sullivan split her time between the Cougars soccer and cross-country teams, and went 10-for-10 on the trails with a resume that included victories at the state meet, the New England championship, the Northeast Regionals and became the first Vermonter to win the national title at the Foot Locker National Championship. She defended that national crown a year later, and also went on to win the national scholastic outdoor two-mile title twice (with a nation’s-best time of 10:17 in 1999). She also took second in the prep mile at the 1998 Millrose Games. She still owns the state’s fastest-ever high school times in the 1,500 (4:30.90) and 3,000 (9:40.51).

In college, Sullivan became the first Stanford athlete to win the Pac-10 individual cross-country championship as a freshman and was a two-time All-American, in 1999 and 2000. In track and field, she collected multiple top-10 finishes at the Pac-10 championships across the distance races — 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meters — and won the 10,000 meter crown as a junior, later taking 10th at the NCAA meet.

Sullivan was recognized in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd while at Mount Mansfield and the national magazine in 2000 tabbed her 41st in its of the Top 50 Greatest Sports Figures from the State of Vermont during the 20th century.