By Kye Berger
Freshman Jensen Boyd started wrestling when he was two, but not by choice. Thanks to his dad, wrestling became a way of life after that.
In preseason rankings Jensen was ranked No. 1 in the state and he is living up to it so far with a 14-0 record. Not just 14 wins, but he has pinned his opponents 14 times.
He is not nervous, though, because he already sees himself being ranked first.
“I feel good, but you know the rankings don’t mean much because there’s always someone better than you so you gotta keep working on it,” Jensen said.
Jensen has a strong work ethic and has big academic and athletic goals for his future.
Wrestling is one of the most important things in his life, but he knows it’s not the only thing in his future.
“I take my grades and academics very seriously,” Boyd said. “Academically I want to maintain a 4.0 GPA all four years of high school.”
Jensen’s leadership tells a lot about who he is. One of Jensen’s closest friends, Sam Mosier, is the only other freshman wrestler on varsity. Sam is Jensen’s partner at practice.
“Even though he’s one of the youngest people on our team, he’s still one of our main leaders,” Sam said..
Wrestling is not as easy for him as it may seem. Half the battle is before the match even starts. He faces the challenge of making weight and being mentally prepared before a match.
The season requires gaining or cutting weight. Jensen stays disciplined and keeps his diet where it needs to be. His natural weight is 115 to 117 pounds, but for wrestling he has to make 106 pounds.
He has to make weight multiple times a week and each time it is a tough cut. Some days he only has very little water and food to make sure he makes weight. Then he has to go out on the mat and perform under pressure.
He has many sources that inspire him in his life, one being his father Jimmy Boyd as well as his sister Alara Boyd.
His dad wrestled at Winchester High School and has always pushed him and helped him get better.
He has three sisters. One of his older sisters is Alara, whom he looks up to. Jensen says she impacted his young wrestling career.
“She always accomplished more than me at first, so I wanted to get better and be better than her,” Boyd said.
Additionally, a big person Jensen looks up to is David Goggins. A motivational speaker, Goggins is known as the “World’s Toughest Man”.
Jensen traveled to Colombia at the start of his eighth-grade year to compete in a high-level tournament known as the Pan-Am World Championship. This is a tournament of the best wrestlers all around the world competing for the gold. He came out on top of the podium. He ended up placing first in Freestyle, which is your whole body, and Greco style, which is mainly upper body wrestling.
Boyd already has some NCAA Division 1 colleges in mind such as Penn State, Cornell, and Ohio State. These colleges are good in academics and are among the nation’s top wrestling colleges.
But college is a long way away for Boyd as he still has four years to achieve his wrestling and academic high school goals.
