Commencement has a different meaning for Hamburg's Whelan
On the weekend of his Hamburg High School graduation, senior Joe Whelan was fighting off tears.
Only he was nowhere near the ceremony.
Whelan was more than 2,000 miles away at the USA Track and Field Junior Outdoor Championships. Last Sunday, Whelan staged a last-minute comeback to place second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase championship.
The score earned him a spot on the national team that is due to compete at the Pan American Junior Track and Field Championships.
"It was better than the graduation would have been," said his father, Brian Whelan. "He set this as a goal at the beginning of the year. That's what he wanted and that's what he got."
Whelan, one of the country's top high school track and field athletes, arrived at the legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., with plenty of accomplishments.
Whelan has qualified for state competition every year since he was a freshman and set school records in the 1,600-meter race.
But at the site of three Olympic trials and a variety of national championships, he wanted to accomplish one singular goal.
"My main goal all season was to make the national team," Whelan said. "That was my first goal, to make the team."
For the majority of the race, it did not look like Whelan would be qualifying for the championships in Trinidad and Tobago.
For the first 2,200 meters he sat as far back as seventh place. But with 800 meters remaining, Whelan began to pass opponent after opponent.
With 300 meters left, Whelan was ready to contend for a third-place finish.
"I was trying to hit 9:10 to get the third place and go to Trinidad," he said.
His dad was sitting too far away to get a good look at the finish. But he was close enough to see that his son was, at one point, as far back as seventh place.
"I didn't think he would do it," Brian Whelan said. "I was a ways back, and I couldn't get a good view of the finish."
Over the loudspeaker came the announcement that Joseph Whelan had finished in second place with a time of 9:09:97.
"I just put my head down in the last lap and went for it," Whelan said. "I ended up making up a lot of ground, and when I crossed the line I couldn't believe it. I wanted to start to cry or something."
The Pan Am Junior Track and Field championships are scheduled to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from July 31 through Aug. 2, but may be canceled due to the swine influenza pandemic.
The Caribbean Games, the senior Caribbean Squash Championships and the Caribbean Football Union's Youth Cup have already been among the sporting events canceled in response to the outbreak.
No official word has been released about the Pan Am Championships. "It'd be disappointing," Whelan said about the potential cancellation. "But least I made the team and did all I could. There's nothing else I could have done."
That is, except go to his graduation.
When asked whether he regretted missing the ceremony to compete, he quickly interrupted.
"It was worth it."
He missed the prom, too.
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