BUCKLEY — Aiden Harrand helped put Buckley back on the athletic map.
Now she’s got even more hardware to prove it.
Harrand won Ms. Track and Field at the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association’s recent winter clinic in Lansing.
The only problem was picking up the massive trophy that accompanies the award.
Harrand, now a freshman runner at Wake Forest University, was told of the award awhile ago and did a video for the MITCA awards banquet, since she couldn’t attend in person. Buckley coach Jolie King was out of state and couldn’t be there either.
“I swear I told my parents a long time ago,” Harrand said. “At Christmas break I asked them who is going to the coaches clinic to get my award, and they didn’t know.”
Remy King ended up scooping up the huge trophy, as she was there to pick up her mother’s award for being a finalist for Coach of the Year.
“(Harrand) put Buckley on the map,” Jolie King said. “Boys basketball did it a few years ago, and now she did it for cross country and track.”
Harrand was well-known enough that a Buckley elementary schooler named Becca went dressed as Harrand for Halloween, even borrowing one of Harrand’s medals to complete the costume consisting of a Bears top, chicken leg shorts and the same hairdo.
“I want to use the award to show the younger generations that if you work hard, great things can happen,” Harrand said. “I think it’s like my last high school hurrah.”
Harrand was a 15-time all-state runner for the Bears.
She holds Buckley’s XC record at 11 minutes, 12.3 seconds in the 2-mile and 17:38.9 in the 5K, as well as Buckley’s home course record in 17:39.6, all set in 2023. She broke the state record in the 5K as a senior.
“There were so many talented people in her graduating class,” Jolie King said. “How crazy is that?”
Harrand earned all-state all four years in cross country, winning state championships as a junior and senior.
“She did it all, 400 to 2-mile,” Jolie King said. “She won a state title in every one.”
Harrand claimed the 1,600-meter state championship in track as a freshman, adding 800 and 1,600 titles (and fourth in the 3,200) as a sophomore, three crowns as a junior (800, 1,600 and 3,200) and won the 400 and 1,600 as a senior, coming in second in the 800. She also was all-state in the 1,600 relay as a junior.
She’s no stranger to end-of-the-season awards, picking up two Cross Country Runner of the Year awards from the Record-Eagle to go along with two Track Athlete of the Year Awards.
“I was really excited to be nominated,” Harrand said. “I didn’t think I was going to win. When I heard, I was really surprised. Being in Division 4, I think people overlook me for things like that. I was very grateful for it.”
Her legacy at Buckley will last quite awhile, Jolie King said. Harrand and her senior class established guidelines for team behavior during meets and on trips, from how to dress and even down to what’s an acceptable water bottle.
Harrand made the varsity travel team as a freshman at Wake Forest and raced in the Atlantic Coast Conference finals. She’s looking to major in psychology.
Harrand set a personal record with a time of 4:33.99 to win the 1,500 race in the Emerging Elite Division as part of the Riot Track Club at the 2024 Nike Outdoor Nationals on June 15.
She also won national titles in the 1,600, running a PR of 4:51.17, and the 1-mile race in a PR of 4:52.89.
It’s also not the last you’ll hear of the Harrand family. Her younger sister Addisen is a talented junior, and brothers Ethan and Easton are in eighth grade and primed for making an impact in track.