His opponent in the seventh-place game, Iowa City West’s Luca Chackalackal, had just told the Marshalltown senior of his intentions to injury default after finding it too difficult to carry on. Strand was the winner — but already ahead 4-3 in the first set at the time of the injury, he said it was an awkward situation. He was happy with the victory, but his competitive fire said there was more for him to give.

“It feels good,” Strand said. “After losing to him yesterday, I felt like I had this match if it went the full distance, the full two sets. I was playing some good tennis.

“It’s kind of sad because I’ve played this sport for a long time, I love coach [James] Christensen and coach [Thad] Lents, like they’ve done so much to help me improve. It’s nice, though, because only four people leave state winning on the singles side.”

The MHS senior finished off his high school career with a seventh-place finish at the boys’ state individual meet, earning a medal with a 3-2 performance over Tuesday and Wednesdays action. It’s the first medal for the Bobcats at state since Ryan Shomo finished sixth in 2013.

The opening match of the day for Strand was in the consolation semifinals against a friend and frequent opponent — Ankeny Centennial junior Caleb Peterson.

Early in the match, Peterson established a 3-0 advantage. Strand would fight back and get two games in the first set, but every time he produced a high-quality shot the Centennial player would match him. There was no margin for error, and Strand slipped up too many times in the first set. Peterson took set one 6-2.

The match was 3-2 in the second set with Strand playing possibly his best stretch of tennis in the match, but again when the moment arose Peterson was ruthless. A 6-2 win in set two sealed the match for Peterson and put Strand into a waiting game to find out his 7th/8th place opponent.

Head coach James Christensen said it was not a bad performance from Strand, and he used the defeat to once again raise his level at the next opportunity.

“Caleb just has so many weapons that it paints you into a little bit of a corner,” Christensen said. “You’re hitting it into a 2×2 box there whereas with a lot of people you’ve got the majority of the court.

“Kevin was able to break a bad streak we had of eight straight state losses.”

Strand had already gone up against Chackalackal on Tuesday, losing 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of play. Wanting to make up for that loss and knowing the Iowa City West senior was coming off of a grueling consolation semifinal loss to teammate Seth Smigel, Strand changed his strategy — and set out to keep his opponent off-balance.

He won the first nine points of the match, immediately applying pressure onto Chackalackal and going up 2-1 early. They traded games until cracks started to show after an especially long volley, leading to the Iowa City West senior deciding he couldn’t carry on.

Strand was reflective after the match, going back and looking at the year of work he’s put in and how he was “playing catch-up” after not focusing on tennis in his middle school years.

“The last year, 2021 summer to now I’ve just been catching up I feel like,” Strand said. “This has been the first year where I’ve really wanted to leave a mark in tennis and get a lot better. I enjoy the process, I like to think of it as a marathon not a sprint.”

He will continue playing tennis in college, but Strand has not officially announced his plans.

Christensen said it was a fitting ending to his Bobcat career to end up on the medal stand.

“It’s not everybody that gets to end their career on a win,” Christensen said. “State medals are not easy to come by.”