Ethan Strand (2025) - Patterson Medal Winners - University of North Carolina Athletics

Ethan Strand

Induction:
2025
Class:
2025

2025 – Ethan Strand: Men’s Cross Country/Track & Field (Vestavia, Ala.)
Strand was the 2025 NCAA champion in the indoor 3,000 and became the first ever to break collegiate records in the indoor mile and 3,000 in the same season. He was the national runner-up as a senior in the indoor distance medley relay and the outdoor 1,500.

A five-time ACC champion, Strand became the first Tar Heel and only the fourth in ACC men’s track history to win the outdoor 1,500 three times. He also won the indoor 3,000 in 2023 and the indoor 5,000 in 2025 and placed second in the 2024 ACC Cross Country Championship.

He was a seven-time All-America (five times first team), the 2025 ACC Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, 2025 USTFCAA National & Southeast Region Men’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, three-time national track athlete of the week (twice indoor, once outdoor) and 2025 ACC Indoor Track Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Strand ran the second-fastest outdoor 1,500 in NCAA history, setting the ACC/UNC records in 3:33.22. He also set UNC records in the indoor mile, 3,000 and DMR and the outdoor 1,500, the ACC meet record in winning the indoor 5,000 in 2025 and teamed with Wolfe as members of the indoor distance medley relay that set an unratified American record. He is the third-ranked indoor miler in U.S. history.