VESTAL, N.Y.—Simply put, it’s been quite the senior year for senior Kaitlin Sullivan of the Binghamton track & field team. Five months ago, the best she had ever performed at the America East Indoor Track Championships was a seventh-place finish at the 2009 meet. In the outdoor season, she was fifth in the 100 hurdles at the 2011 championships. She had solid performances, but had yet to earn all-conference honors with a top-three finish at an America East meet. Winning a conference title was an ultimate goal, but a remote one at best. As for the Binghamton women’s team, the Bearcats had fallen on lean times. Since 2006, they had finished no better than fifth place at an America East Championships. Starting in December, however, all of that changed. Every week, Sullivan was lowering her own school record in the 60 hurdles during the indoor season. In the conference meet this past February, she earned her first-ever all-conference accolade with a third-place finish in the 60 hurdles. Sullivan then turned to the outdoor season, breaking her own school records multiple times in both the 100 and 400. Heading into this past weekend’s conference outdoor meet at Maine, she had already had a very successful year. Her performance this past Sunday, however, was her crowning moment. Sullivan won the 100 hurdles, breaking the 14-second mark in the process. She went on to place a career-best fifth in the 400 hurdles and then anchored the second-place 4x400 relay team. Sullivan scored 16 points in the outdoor meet and her breakthrough was symbolic of the Binghamton women’s track team, which placed a program-best third overall at the America East meet. The Binghamton women’s track & field team is the program that has exceeded expectation as much as any in the athletic program during the 2011-12 academic year. It is Sullivan’s effort in spearheading that effort that has earned her Athlete of the Week honors.