WEST SALEM — Teghan Moore used to be fidgety before wrestling matches.
Maybe he spent more time thinking about what could go wrong than what he was going to make sure went right, but that’s no longer the case for the West Salem/Bangor junior 106-pounder.
Moore won 32 matches as a freshman and 24 more during an abbreviated sophomore season — a broken finger sidelined him for January and into February — that ended in a WIAA Division 1 sectional tournament. His master plan was to be a two-time state qualifier by now, but it didn’t work out.
The result has been a new version of a competitor coach Josh Brewer knew would emerge at some point, and Moore is enjoying significant success with 19 wins in his first 21 matches.
“The confidence,” Brewer said when asked the biggest difference from previous seasons. “When he was a freshman, he’d go out there 100 miles per hour and panic in bad situations. He started to kick that as a sophomore and got a little more comfortable.
“But this year, even when he’s in bad positions, he’s confident that he can get out of it. His tool box has grown so much that he’s able to get through tough situations that will always be there because of the pace he likes to wrestle.”
Moore, a runner-up at the Bi-State Classic late last month and the top-ranked Division 1 106-pounder by Wisconsin Grappler, is aiming for his first state tournament by taking full advantage of the competition he encounters as a Catbird. The only two opponents to beat him are Minnesota competitors ranked fourth in Class AA and first in Class A.
He has balanced that with wins over Aquinas freshman Lincoln Stanek, Brown Deer senior Anthony Strong, Wisconsin Rapids freshman Jackson Freeman and Pulaski sophomore Jack Falk — all state-ranked performers.
The first of those was a pin of Stanek — ranked seventh in Division 3 — for the championship at the Royall Invitational. He beat Strong — ranked third in Division 1 — by technical fall for the title at the E.H. Stech Invitational in West Allis two weeks later.
“I just feel like I wrestled really well against him,” Moore said of the win over Strong. “I dominated him, and it wasn’t really a a close match. I think that gave me a lot of confidence.
“I was putting moves together, and I was really good with my scrambles. I scrambled through some things, and a lot of points went my way.”
Brewer said the Strong match was serious test for Moore, who had beaten him by one point in a previous meeting last year.
“We knew he could match Teghan’s speed and strength,” Brewer said. “I was a little nervous going into that match, and I was curious to see how much Teghan had grown as a wrestler.
“There were a lot of scrambles that were just legs and arms flying around on the mat, then up in the air. And Teghan came out on top in every one of them. He won 18-2, and the only two points he gave up were when we cut him (allowed the escape).”
Moore qualified for that match with a 13-6 win over Freeman — 16th in Division 1 — and beat Falk — eighth in Division 1 — 13-10 in the Bi-State semifinals.
Simley’s Adrian Mincey and Chatfield’s Jameson Priebe have been the only obstacles he hasn’t cleared this season. Mincey beat him 9-6 at the Husky Invitational, and Priebe handed him an 11-1 defeat on the stage at the Bi-State finals.
Score confusion — Moore was awarded a stall point to tie the match at 6 in the closing seconds, but thought he trailed 6-5 — led to an unnecessary shot that backfired as the third period ended. He had trouble finishing shots throughout his match against Priebe, but he was still within 4-1 in the third period.
“I was trying to get some takedowns that probably weren’t there, and he stayed calm and took control of the match,” Moore said of the bout with top-ranked Priebe. “It would have been a different match had I finished shots in the first and second.”
Moore understands what he can take from those matches and said he’d rather lose to elite wrestlers than beat those who don’t challenge him. He’ll pack all of that away for the postseason march that begins in February and work on identified problems until then.
He did plenty of that during the offseason as a regular on the mats at La Crosse Area Wrestlers and tournaments around the country. Moore won a Greco-Roman state championship at 106 while wrestling in Madison in May and won seven of eight matches he wrestled at the U16 National Duals in Herriman, Utah. He also won four of six matches in the 16U National Greco-Roman championships in Fargo, N.D.
“I felt good about all of it because when I went the year before, I went 0-2 in both,” Moore said.
What Brewer expects to see moving forward is a lot of what he has seen over the past six or seven weeks — a conditioned wrestler who knows how to use his speed and quickness and keeps getting better at stringing together moves that have opponents focused more on staying out of trouble than scoring points.
“He’s flowing from move to move to situation,” Brewer said, “and he’s starting to set up his stuff a lot better.”
