Feb 20, 2020 3 min read

When Julian Moore was a little kid, he tested the patience of his family with his one great love.

Wrestling.

More than one fixture lost its life inside his house to an accidental kick, swinging of arms or crashing of bodies.

So his parents decided for the betterment of the furniture in their house to turn Moore loose in the Avella youth wrestling program.

That decision started a long journey that is really beginning to blossom.

Moore, a freshman at Avella and a member of the Fort Cherry wrestling team through a cooperative agreement between the two schools, is having an outstanding season.

The 113-pounder came into the WPIAL Class AA championships at Canon-McMillan last weekend unseeded and feeling a bit under appreciated. All Moore did was knock off the No. 3 seed twice in the tournament, the final time 3-1, to take third place in the weight class.

That finish earned him a trip to the PIAA Southwest Regional championships, which get underway today at Indiana University.

The preliminary round begins at 1 p.m. and the quarterfinals start at 5 p.m. Semifinals are at noon Saturday and the finals are 5:40 p.m.

The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the PIAA championships at the Giant Center in Hershey March 5 through 7.

Moore is one of four wrestlers from Fort Cherry who advanced to the regional tournament. The others are Robbie West, who finished fourth at 220 pounds; Jake Tkach, who was sixth at 145 pounds; and Nasier Sutton, who was seventh at 132 pounds.

Moore is optimistic that he can reach the state tournament and his performance in the WPIAL championships leads to that optimism.

“I went in (to the WPIAL tournament) without any expectations,” Moore said. “I just wanted to wrestle the best that I could. I had no regrets.”

Moore’s finish in that tournament did not land him the best draw in the weight class. He wrestles Bryce Beatty, a junior from Mount Union High School in the first round. Beatty has a 33-5 record and finished fourth in District 6. The winner will take on District 5 champion Kai Burkett, who has a 33-4 record for Chestnut Ridge.

Two of the three wrestlers who handed Moore his only losses also are in the bracket. District 7 champion Joey Fischer of South Park, a junior who is 37-2; and Luke Geibig, who lost to Fischer in the District 7 finals. The Mount Pleasant sophomore has a 32-11 record.

“He really took off and never slowed down all year,” said Fort Cherry head coach Doug Lefebvre. “He had a tough loss to (Nate) Jones of Waynesburg at Tri-CADA and it upset him because he thought he got a few bad calls. It was a good sign, seeing how he hung with Jones. He’s done really well.”

Moore is dedicated to the sport, as shown by his willingness to participate in the co-op program. His grandfather drives him to practice at Fort Cherry after school lets out at Avella, a 20-minute trip. He is one of two Avella students in the co-op; West is the other.

“My dad told me about the co-op,” Moore said. “I knew a whole bunch of wrestlers from Fort Cherry so I was OK with it.”