Update: Patrick Dillon, Whitman Alum, Advances on Jeopardy!

Update:  Patrick Dillon won on Jeopardy! Tuesday night, advancing to the next round on Nov. 19.  He won $26,702 in the first round of the teachers tournament on the ABC-TV game show.

Patrick Dillon will demonstrate the value of a lifelong interest in reading and learning when he appears Tuesday on Jeopardy! 

He ended the first round with $26,702 while the second-place contest finished with $20,000 and third with $399.

The 2000 Walt Whitman High School graduate, who teaches music at Munsey Park Elementary School in Manhasset, is taking part in a two-week-long teachers' tournament on the  program, which airs at 7 p.m. on WABC-TV. 

His mother, Patricia Dillon, a librarian at Huntington High School, said her son has always loved to read.  "He was just always a tremendous reader, even when he was little," she said. 

He also showed a competitive streak, trying to out-answer his father as they watched the program together when Patrick was still a boy. She said  he has versatile interests, having majored at William & Mary College before deciding to become a music teacher. In between was a stint working at the Book Revue.

The two-week tournament features teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade from around North America, all competing for $100,000 grand prize and a berth in the next Tournament of Champions.

Contestants are chosen after taking an online test followed by in-person interviews, more tests and a mock game.

Dillon competed with fellow teachers in October and though the family knows how he did--"very well," his mother said, they're not allowed to reveal the results. So tune in Tuesday night.