Though currently one of the best runners in the nation, nobody looked at John Whelan in high school.

“Being from a small school, I told John his workout partner was going to be a stopwatch for four years,” said Les Helsley, Etna High School’s cross-country coach.

Helsley had to come up with a plan for this top-notch runner to succeed in the small town of Etna, California with barely any competition. They established goals that allowed for Whelan to continually develop as a long-distance runner. Whelan paced, worked out his form and increased his mileage. Four years under Coach Helsley’s eye, and Whelan was just getting started.

Since there was a limit to how challenged Whelan could be in his supportive yet small town, Whelan went north to Yreka High School.

On the border with Oregon, Whelan would spend some time practicing with the runners at this school under their coach, Pam Borg.

“John came to our practices a couple times a week over a two-year period to run with my boys in order to get in some work with a training group. Most of the time in Etna, John trained by himself, so I was more than happy to help him out,” Borg said.

He also went with them to Steen’s Mountain Running Camp. A high altitude training camp in southeastern Oregon, this is where Whelan got his first taste of the Cougar family.

Then a freshman at Washington State University, Drew Jordan was a counselor at Steen’s, and Whelan was put in his tent for the week of camp. From that moment on, Jordan was going to have Whelan in his life, and the first step would be pulling for Whelan to attend WSU.

“I definitely was in our coach’s ear. ‘Give this kid a scholarship, he deserves it, he’s going to be good.’ I think that was a big thing,” Jordan said. “We were one of the only schools that recruited John because of that. And we would have never recruited him had I not met him when I did when he was still in high school.”

The benefits from this chance encounter continued to grow when Whelan joined Washington State’s long-distance running team. His times improved so much that he finished his junior year runner-up in the West Region on the 10,000 meter course with a time of 30 minutes and 54.9 seconds. For half of this meet, Whelan was leading the race ahead of highly-recruited and four time Pac-12 Champion, University of Oregon runner Edward Cheserek.

“You’ve got to have tenacity when you are going up against the national champion and you are saying, ‘no, I’m going to pass this guy,’” sophomore teammate Sam Levora said. “He’s got guts.”

Inspiring people and making them laugh are two of Whelan’s specialties . His friends would attest to Whelan’s ability to crack sarcastic jokes and put a smile on anyone’s face. Whelan is a laid back guy that will do any activity as long as it is outside. Growing up where he did, a love of the outdoors is almost a requirement with the surrounding sierra wilderness.

In the summer of 2015, Whelan and his friends Levora and Jordan combined their mutual loves of hiking and running in the Wenatchee National Forest. What started as an in-depth finalized plan for a big trip and hike in Canada quickly turned into an 18-mile roundtrip day hike outside of Leavenworth.

Bringing Whelan along meant that the group had to run up the 5,000 foot elevation shirtless and with one water bottle between them.

“Running is a sport of cycles. You’ve got your ups and downs, and just depending on the training period you are in, everyone can be really tired a lot of the times, and John, even when he’s tired, he always up, he’s always bringing you up, he’s always lifting you up,” Jordan said. “He’s an incredibly motivating person.”

This motivation made Whelan a captain as junior and the one to lead the men’s team to the national championship. His current coach at WSU, Wayne Phipps, had trouble describing Whelan as anything but the best captain any coach could ask for.

“He’s exactly what you want in your student athlete and your captain for cross-country,” Phipps said. “Works super, super hard and you couldn’t ask absolutely anything more from him. He’s a fantastic student. He’s a great leader for us.”

This credit given to Whelan’s for his admired leadership was repeated by his high school coach. In a small town where everyone knows everyone, Helsley confirmed the support that Whelan has from home.

“Everyone here in Scott Valley is proud of John and what he has done and will continue to do with his life.”