Peak Performer of the Week: Mesa Ridge's Matthew Moore showcases growth on and off wrestling mat
Jan. 25—In a way, Mesa Ridge senior Matthew Moore speaks the way he wrestles. He's quick and to the point, but what he says and does is golden.
He spent 14-and-a-half hours at the Colorado Springs Metro Wrestling Championships at Doherty on Friday and Saturday to wrestle for 6 minutes and 4 seconds. He won four matches that weekend, all by pin fall en route to his third Metros title.
"I love the people first and foremost everyone that surrounds me, the fans the coaches, the teammates," he said about the sport following the win in the finals. "It's sports entertainment television. I'm out here to have fun, entertain people, it's what I do."
Then Moore put all future opponents on notice.
"Every time I step out on the mat, I go to war, I know where my heart is. And for them to beat me, they're going to have to know where theirs are. They're gonna have to drag me through hell," he said.
Just seven wrestlers have been up to the task. Moore has locked down the heavyweight 285-pound weight class for Mesa Ridge and most athletes in the state of Colorado. Moore is 103-7 over the course of his career and 25-2 this season following his third first-place finish at the Metro Championships. If it weren't for COVID-19, he would likely be just the third wrestler ever to become a four-time Metro champ. The tournament was not held in 2021. Moore won the state title his sophomore season and was a runner up his freshman and junior years.
He has secured a future in the sport, and will wrestle for the Huskers at the University of Nebraska.
"Go big red, baby," he said. "The intensity, the coaches are amazing and the group of kids we got coming in amazing, incredible."
Moore learned to wrestle starting at age six and grew into his big personality as a student at Mesa Ridge.
"I would say I've improved most as a person you know? I'm more opened up, I'm more social, get to talk to people get to have fun," he said. "Before it was like I was closed off, singling myself out from everybody, trying to be my own person. But now I realize and I understand that I can be happy and be my own person with a bunch of people around me too."
It's not just lip service. Mesa Ridge Coach Tyler Herbst, who has been a head coach for two years and has coached for the past 13, said Moore has been very helpful in the development of his teammates.
"Our practice room, there's not really a guy that can really make him work that hard. But the thing I like best about him is he's been putting in a lot of work to make the other, especially the big guys on our team, a lot better," Herbst said. "So I think Matthew's the best in state and I think our backup heavyweight is probably a top five in the state and a big part of that is because Matthew's working so hard to make the guys around him better."
As for his own goals, Moore looks to get back to the top of the mountain with a victory at state this year. Last year, he was defeated by Montrose's Dmarian Lopez in sudden victory. It was his second loss of the season.
"(I) hate losing," Moore said. "It doesn't matter how much you love winning everybody loves winning. It's who hates losing more."
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