Competitive drive fuels Hayden Buhro to be great

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

It’s hard enough to excel at one or two sports, but Hayden Buhro manages to do just that at three.
The Oak Harbor senior recently reached 100 career victories in wrestling, adding to a list of achievements that include being one of the fastest sprinters in Ohio and being one of the best players on a football team that won a Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division title and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to call Buhro one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the school.
Eclipsing 100 wins was a milestone in a season that has seen Buhro, who wrestles at 175 pounds, named the Most Valuable Wrestler at the Bellevue Bob Bailey Invitational after he pinned three wrestlers and defeated Carey’s Lance Rickle, 9-5, in the finals. (The Rockets won the 10-team event with 289 points, holding off Genoa, which finished with 267.5 points.)
Buhro also came in fifth at the Perrysburg Invitational Tournament, one of Ohio’s premiere events. He is currently ranked sixth in Ohio, according to borofanohio.net, in Division III. Buhro qualified for state in wrestling as a sophomore and junior but was disqualified last season for medical reasons.
The list of accolades is endless with Buhro, who has helped to set a number of records in track and field.
Last season, he was 13th in the 100-meter dash in 10.93 in Div. II and 15th in the 200 in 23.08. He teamed with Isiah Miller, Jaqui Hayward and Hayden Hower to finish second in the 4x100 relay in 42.15, and the 4x200 relay team of Buhro, Hower, Judson Overmyer and Owen Miller was eighth in 1:29.39.
“I love competition in general, but in all three sports, it makes it so much more fun,” he said. “Competition is what drives me to want to keep going. Everything is a competition.”
Buhro played both ways for the football team, earning league and district honors as a wide receiver and as a defensive back. He also earned honorable-mention distinction in Div. V.
Buhro was a jack-of-all trades, sort of a Deebo Samuel kind of player, one who could make big plays by catching the ball or running it. He caught 46 passes, a school record for a single season, for 621 yards and eight touchdowns while running it 53 times for 462 yards and 11 scores. He also had a total of 326 yards returning punts and kicks.
“Football will always be my favorite because I started playing it very young and fell in love with competing and the team aspect of it,” he said. “I will always love football.”
“I never have down time. I am always working, always on the grind,” he said.
He counts Tyler Davis, Clay Schulte, Wyatt Miller and Tyler May as some of his best former teammates, and current teammates like Hayward, Owen Miller and Christian Paul stand out, too, he said.
Buhro credits all three of his coaches — Mike May (football), George Bergman (wrestling) and Andy Augsburger (track).
“Coach May was a great influence and really brought me together character-wise. Coach Bergman and I are the closest because he has been my coach since I was 7. He is very wise and is a Hall of Fame coach for a reason,” said Buhro. “Augs is a great man and has taught me how to become faster and a better man all around.
“All of my coaches are great leaders and are the reasons my teammates and I are in the positions we’re in,” he said.