Vestavia Hills Senior And UNC Commit, Son Of Former Auburn Standout Scott Strand, Has Sights Set On Big Finish In Alabama

By Arthur L. Mack for DyeStat 

When Vestavia Hills’ Ethan Strand toes the starting line in the Class 7A boys final at the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Cross Country Championships at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park this weekend, he hopes to chase destiny.

Strand is aiming to win for the third year in a row. As a sophomore in 2018, he won with an impressive time of 15 minutes, 24.29 seconds, edging Mountain Brook’s Hunter Harwell by less than a second. The next year, he improved his winning time to 15:18.58.

It was a big improvement from his debut in state meet competition, where as a freshman in 2017 Strand finished 31st in 16:39.38.

This year, Strand has gotten stronger. Still, there was an early season loss to Homewood’s Crawford Hope at the Chickasaw Trails race Sept. 12. In that race, on the same course used for the state championships, Hope ran 15:20.75 and Strand was next in 15:29.82.

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“I almost knew it was coming,” Strand said. “(Hope) had a pretty good summer training wise, but he always tends to be a little stronger early, in the first race and the early season. Of course, I didn’t want to lose, but he just pulled away — he was just stronger. I wasn’t really mad about it, because it pushed me to work harder. That meet always tends to be hard for me."

The following week, Strand avenged the loss to Hope in a big way at The Southern Showcase held in Huntsville. Strand scorched the field by running 14:36.88 — the first sub-15-minute performance by a runner from the state of Alabama. Hope was just five seconds behind, running 14:41.63. The race had 21 runners go under 16 minutes.

“It was awesome,” Stand said. “I knew coming into the race we would go really fast. Actually, all of the competition in that race was Alabama kids. This Alabama class we have is super, super strong. The course was great and I knew it was going to be a fast day. We ran it pretty even, and all of my splits were pretty even each mile. Me and Crawford, we stuck together and pushed each other.”

Not too long afterward, at the Jesse Owens Classic, Strand won in a respectable 15:02.25. That time was only four seconds shy of the course record of 14:58, set by Ben Hubers of McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) in 2006.

“I wanted to run a little faster that day and go for that record, but it just didn’t work out,” Strand said. “I came through the two-mile fast enough, but my last mile was slower than I wanted to be. At the end of the day, I’ll have one more chance (at the state championships) this weekend.”

Strand, who committed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he’s ready to take his skills to the next level. He said there were several things that attracted him to UNC.

“It was kind of a mix of both (running and academics),” he said. “It’s a great academic school, and it was really kind of the coaches (that convinced me). UNC hasn’t really been great at distance running in the past, but I kind of saw the vision from the very first phone call when they said, ‘Okay, if you want to do something great here.’ So, I bought into that and then we got some really good guys together, so it all worked out.”

Strand is still deciding where to apply his studies at UNC.

“I don’t know for sure yet, but it’ll be something involving business,” he said.

Strand came by his running prowess genetically — his father, Scott, was a star steeplechaser for Auburn University. Scott Strand later moved to the University of Alabama-Birmingham for his masters’ degree and then also coached the cross country and track teams there.

Among the elder Strand’s accolades was a sixth-place finish in the 1996 Olympic Trials 3,000-meter steeplechase final, and in 2000, a victory in the U.S. 10K Championship at the Senior Bowl Charity Run held in Mobile. 

“It helped a little bit, because I have some of the genes,” Strand said. “I’ve always been around running and grew up with it. My dad never pushed me to become a runner, but it definitely helped growing up with it.

“The one thing he always tells me is to be humble — just let your running do the talking and don’t talk about yourself. That’s the big thing with me; I try to stay as humble as possible.”

Humility aside, Strand hopes to get his third straight individual title this weekend, while at the same time shooting for the course record.

Hope, who is also committed to UNC, will be there every step of the way to push him.

“I think with Class 7A, you have to run that time (14:58) or faster to win,” he said. “I’m not worried about the time, but of course, that’s a goal that’s in the back of my head. I’m really more focused on trying to win the race, because I know if I have a good race, I’m going to run that time.”