Crestwood third grader Kayden Miller has enjoyed a breakout season with the Crestwood Youth Wrestling Program, becoming the first wrestler in program history to win a state title at the Ohio Athletic Committee meet by going 5-0 in the Division II 75-pound weight class at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown during the weekend of March 28.
It marked the second consecutive state championship for Miller, who previously won the Ohio Wrestling Association for Youth state championship on the weekend of March 21.
“I was working hard for these two weekends, and I knew there was tough competition, so I knew I had to work,” Kayden told The Weekly Villager on April 3. “I had to go with bigger and stronger kids to get better so I reached my goals.”
At the OAC tournament, Kayden went 5-0 to become the first Crestwood Youth wrestler to earn a state championship in a bracket of 32 competitors.
According to Kayden, he was familiar with several of his opponents, having already faced them in the OHWAY tournament the weekend prior.
“The kids that wrestled at OHWAY, some of them went to OAC and I knew what they did and that I could beat them again at OAC,” he noted.
His final bout at the OAC tournament came against an opponent who had previously bested him in their last match, but this time Miller emerged victorious, claiming a state title, winning by a 3-2 decision.
Kayden said that in their first meeting, he tried to overpower his opponent but focused more on his footwork in the re-match, and his attention to detail gave him a winning edge.
Heading into the third period, Kayden said that he was supposed to wrestle from the bottom, but his opponent opted for the period to begin with both wrestlers on their feet, automatically awarding him a point on an escape and he did not surrender an offensive point in the final minute of regulation.
“I learned a lot because of last time,” Kayden noted. “This time I learned what I had to do and also use my strength to beat him.”
Kayden added that his opponent was bigger than he, traditionally wrestling in the 85-pound weight class, but he was ready for the challenge because of his own experience wrestling against older kids.
“I had to go against stronger kids to get better and better and when I went out there, it was like I was wrestling against smaller kids because I was already used to older and stronger kids,” he said. “We did different tournaments for older kids and when I did that, I got used to that.”
Kayden is only in his third year of wrestling, having just taken up the sport when he was in the first grade.
He said that although he already played baseball and football, he still had energy and decided to add a third sport to his skillset. He has excelled, posting a 142-27 record this season.
Kayden’s mother, Miranda, said that he has become dedicated to improving in the sport, rarely going a day without training even if he also has a baseball or football game on that same day.
“There might be days when he has a baseball game where he practices wrestling in the morning and football after that. It is the same thing where he is doing multiple things in a day,” she added. “It is just going from place-to-place, making him stronger and going from there.”
Kayden said that he is also learning life lessons from wrestling, teaching him to be careful with what he is doing at the moment and making him aware of what he needs to do on defense to prevent his opponents from scoring.
Kayden still has several more tournaments on the horizon, scheduled to compete in the Viper Pit Nationals on the weekend of April 11 in West Virginia, and in the Tournament of Champions on April 25 also in West Virginia.
Miranda said that as much as Kayden has enjoyed winning tournaments, he has also liked proving what he can do, hailing from a small village such as Mantua.
“He comes out and performs the way that he does, and they are all surprised. You typically hear of kids that are succeeding at that level coming from bigger schools and bigger clubs, so it is a big deal,” she said.
