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Two Union runners sacrifice for teammates
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Minutes after Tom Sheehy won the 1,500 meters at last Saturday’s Blue Mountain Conference championship, he said he was giving up his top seed in the race at the OSAA Class 2A state championships. The Union junior ran the top time this season in Class 2A and was awarded the top seed at Saturday’s state meet. Sheehy’s teammate, Chris Fasel, tripped and fell to the track just into the second lap of the four-lap race. He dusted himself off and finished the race in third place with an impressive time of 4:21.49.But, that time was four seconds shy of the automatic qualifying time for the state championships. Despite his record-setting performance, the first emotion Sheehy felt was depression. He couldn’t believe what happened to his teammate and friend. Five minutes after the race, Sheehy approached Union head coach Brad Dunten and said, “If I win the 3,000 meters, I am giving up my 1,500 spot to Chris.” Sheehy won the 3,000 meters. “I’ve heard that I must be crazy to have made this decision,” Sheehy said. “We all have fun running together and without them there it’s not any fun. We lost some sleep over it, but I feel it was a good decision. I don’t regret it all.” Fasel, a senior, ran a 4:18.52 in the 1,500 meters this season, one-hundredth of a second away from the third best time in Class 2A behind Portland Christian’s Andrew Landstrom. Sheehy and Michael Cox, also of Union, have the top two times. To qualify for the state meet a runner must meet the qualifying time in the district championships. “I was really, really excited about his decision,” Fasel said. “I was considering not even going to the state meet at all. I’m just so excited at the chance to go. “Running with Tom has been fun. He’s a great guy. I always look for him up ahead and try to catch him.” Sheehy barely beat Cox in the 3,000 meters. So, it was Cox’s chance to become the savior for another teammate. Union’s Gabriel O’Reilly crossed the finish line, right behind him in third. Cox, a senior, gave up his third-place seed in the state championships so teammate O’Reilly could have his first shot in the state meet. “I went over to Tom’s house and we had a long talk and I said we’ve just got to make a decision,” Cox said. “We really didn’t get much sleep at all. I was pretty emotional about it. But, we knew it had to be done.” Needless to say, O’Reilly was pretty excited. “I have wanted nothing more than to make the state meet,” O’Reilly said. “So, when I heard what they did, I was pretty excited. I would have loved to have made it by myself, but it’s incredibly gracious of Tom and Michael to do what they’re doing.” Since Union swept the top three spots in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter races, it had the ability to swap out either of the top two finishers with third place. “We were trying to get all three guys in the 1,500 qualified by running a 4:17,” Union assistant head coach and Tom’s uncle, Steve Sheehy, said. “It didn’t go exactly to plan. Those guys are just a band of brothers. It really says a lot about them. In my eight years of coaching I have never seen anything like this. “I thought their decisions were pretty admirable. Not every kid will do that. We tried to let it be their decision because they had earned that right. I’m really proud of those guys.” The 16 and 17-year-old teammates may not realize just how much of a sacrifice they made. They have given an incredible gift to their friends. Even if none of them win Saturday, they all had a chance to win. “When Tom approached me after the 1,500, I told him he needed to think about that,” Dunten said. “I knew there was a lot of momentum and thoughts going through his head after that race. “They are a really tight group. It’s very honorable for these guys to be giving up these spots for teammates. I had anticipated something like this just because of the character they have. It seems like any decision, even outside of track, they all make together.” In a time of so many professional athletes letting fans down, it’s important to remember sports at its roots. Friendship united four young men at Union High School and has created memories that will last lifetimes. “Coach went through everything with us and said you guys know what you are missing,” Tom Sheehy said. “We said yeah. We realize what we are doing, but friends are more important than medals.” |
