Teen Injured in Boston Marathon Bombing Named Prom Queen

By Andrea Billups

05/29/2013 at 05:40 PM EDT

Ryan Veiga and Sydney Corcoran

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She wasn't able to dance, but simply being able to attend her prom at Lowell High School made it a memorable night for Massachusetts teenager Sydney Corcoran, who was hit by shrapnel and badly wounded in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings.

Happily, the graduating senior, 18, is on the mend and rallied this week after months of physical therapy and weeks in the hospital. Donning a strapless cream-colored dress and a pair of blinged-out crutches Tuesday night, she reunited with her classmates for the first time since the tragedy.

Once at the event, the attractive brunette had another surprise in store for her: Corcoran was named prom queen.

"I'm very excited. I'm a little nervous to see my friends again," Corcoran told Boston's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV. "It's been so long. Once the bomb happened, I thought I wasn't going to be able to go."

With her long hair curled to perfection and her handsome date, Ryan Veiga, in a black tuxedo, Corcoran made her way from her house to the car with her mom Celeste proudly looking on – from a wheelchair.

Celeste Corcoran lost both of her legs below the knee in the bombings that killed three people and injured more than 170. Celeste and Sydney had both attended the race to watch Sydney's aunt run that fateful day.

"This is a rite of passage. And I'm really glad she was able to go," Celeste said about her daughter's prom, adding that Sydney "deserves to have fun tonight."