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Bellville Faith Academy senior Ethan Stegent was second at last year's 1A TAPPS State XC behind four-time state meet winner David Salas. Stegent has been a top contender and has a solid chance of taking over the number one spot.
He has been staying busy over the summer by working for his dad's HVAC company (air condition and heating services) versus training for the upcoming season.
Admittedly, he spends a lot of time in attucks of 140-plus degrees and usually doesn't begin training for cross country until early August where he transitions well into training as he is acclimated to hot conditions.
With it now being the early stages of August, Stegent expects the typical long runs to be the base of things to start with 800m/1200m intervals and timed miles to be added in.
Faith Academy had actually left the TAPPS organization, but returned last season and personally, Stegent is happy that they are back in TAPPS because he enjoys the higher level of competition.
While cross country is often viewed as a team sport, he is the only male runner on the Faith Academy team. He doesn't have the luxury of training partners or challengers to help him improve in training.
With the four-time state champion gone, Stegent hasn't come to grips that anything less than him winning the TAPPS 1A state title would be dissatisfying, but he has confirmed he's definitely set the goal of winning a state title this season
When he isn't working in the HVAC business or running cross country, Stegent is big on fishing and hunting, and is especially very fond of fishing. He has recently reeled in a 9 lb .25 oz large mouth bass.
In his opinion, running a 5,000m race with hills is tougher than reeling in a nearly 10lb fish. He has just begun training where he'll try to reel in the big one -- a TAPPS 1A state title.
