2025 High school wrestling preview: Black River's Kayden Hendershot is farm strong

There's strong, and then there's farm strong. Kayden Hendershot has been working on his strength all his life, he just might not have realized it until it was time to prove himself on the wrestling mat. But all those years of hauling seed with his brother on his family's farm added up to a state tournament appearance last season as a sophomore. "Walking cows builds that natural strength that some people just don't have," Hendershot said. "We show cows and it just builds arm strength. When you carry bags of seed you just build natural strength. Living on a farm, you're always outside and constantly doing stuff from when you're a kid. Me and my brother always helped my dad carry bags of feed. We've always had that weird farmer's strength since we were kids. And it's one of those things that's completely different from lifting weights." Hendershot had a much longer postseason than his freshman year where he finished fourth at the Beachwood sectional and bowed out of the Independence district after losing both matches. Last season, he brought home the Beachwood sectional championship and placed second at the Independence district, losing 1-0 in the 165-pound final. At state he split his first two matches and led Garaway sophomore Matt Frey 7-3 with a minute left in his second consolation match, but Frey rallied to force overtime and won with an 11-8 sudden victory. A win would have guaranteed him a top-eight finish and a spot on the podium. Instead, his sophomore year concluded at 23-13. "He was nervous," Black River coach Blake Owen said. "There was a lot going on there. He wanted to do well, but he was focused on the crowd and the energy that comes with it. And on the other side of things, he realizes that he needs to wrestle every match to the last second. That cost him in the placement match, not wrestling to the very last second. That gave him something to focus on this year." Owen added that last season Hendershot was more aggressive in hitting his moves, and it helped him dictate the pace of his matches. That, combined with his strength on top, proved to be a winning combination. "His physical strength is probably his biggest attribute," Owen said. "He's growing up on a farm, works with cows and just has that farm strong strength. On the mat, he uses that to his advantage in his tie-ups when he's riding on top. On his feet, he usually takes advantage of mistakes and when he gets down on the mat he can control the situation when he gets down on top. There's a lot of talent behind that, and that's how he got to state last year." In addition to working on his family's farm, he's worked tirelessly in the offseason to improve on the mat and in the fall competed with the Black River football team. He was an all-district second-team honoree at linebacker. He also contributed at running back and tight end on offense. Hendershot has used his first state appearance as motivation this offseason and is setting his sights on the state podium. "It taught me what I needed to change in order to become a more successful wrestler," Hendershot said. "It's one of those things where state is a completely different experience than any other tournament you've been to. I've been to some big national dual tournaments, so it helped me get ready for that different environment. But it's win or go home instead of those guaranteed matches, so it's crunch time and you have to leave it all out there at state." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.