We were joined by Kollin Moore on the latest episode of the Late Night Shots podcast. There was a good amount of insight that he gave on his career in college and recently along with his plans heading forward in his senior level career.
The podcast opened up with us taking about his plans for his career going forward as the US Open and World Team Trials are coming up pretty soon. He said that he will be going 97kg being that is a more natural weight for him and he feels better there. Also stated that he will not be competing at the US Open being that he has already qualified for the trials.
Talked a little about his experiences at the recent Rudis+ card. He said that is was his favorite card to compete in with Rudis going above in beyond with production and having a fantastic venue. Also on the other hand the only criticism that he had was that the card was too long at things started to die out after four hours.
Q: Who is someone you are looking forward to wrestling on the international scene
A: Alikhan Zhbrailov (RUS) who he competed against at the Yasar Dogu. Also looks forward to competing against anyone from overseas.
His main goal as he said was that he wants to make the Olympic Team in 2024 at 97kg. The way to go about doing that according to him would be to make the team before and sit in the finals of the Olympic Trials.
We dipped into his college career and him losing his senior season due to Covid-19 cancelling the national tournament. This would go on to affect him and his teammate Luke Pletcher who were both top seeds heading into the national tournament. They were honored just recently by Ohio State having their pictures put up on the wall for display with the label “Ranked #1 at time of NCAA Tournament cancellation”
Shared his appreciation for the Ohio State program for making that gesture for them being that they did not have the chance to compete. Touched a little bit about him being in the 4x All American club and the impact guys like Logan Steiber and Kyle Snyder had on him being the “superstar” of the team.
Being at contention for a world team spot against former teammate Kyle Snyder was an interesting topic as they both still have a great relationship with each other being on the same team for so long. He said Snyder is a guy who he has learned so much from at his time at Ohio State and with competing against him at the Olympic Trials.
He said that the match with Kyle Snyder in the finals of the Olympic Trials was a big eye opening experience for him showing that there was this next level that you have to compete on to hang with these guys and a certain intensity you need to maintain to even survive. Elaborated on this talking about the jumps that you have to make to get from each level to the next being high school to college, and college to the senior level, etc.
Said that now his training is a lot more deliberate and more focused being that the competition is much stiffer at this level. Things need to be done with certain intentions rather than just showing up to practice and going through the motions.
Talked about his experience his redshirt season at Iowa during Big Tens and the environment. “It’s just intense, you get the general craziness of the fans when you walk in and how crazy they are.” He said it was a fun and cool experience in his times in Carver Hawkeye arena and fans are brutal to the opposing teams.
Q: Top 2 favorite college matches you have ever wrestled
A: Ohio State vs Iowa his sophomore year in 2018 where they had over 15,00 people in attendance. Ohio State was in the prime of its time this year.
Penn State vs Ohio State in 2018 was up here for him even though he and the team lost in this dual. He said the energy was through the roof and it was overall an incredible experience to go through.
Touched on the insane recruiting class for Ohio State pulling the top 3 pound for pound wrestlers in the country in Nick Feldman, Jesse Mendez and Nic Bouzakis. Said the recruiting coordinator does a great job and the environment as a whole does a great job of making kids feel like they are at home.
“If I wrestled Bo Bassett right now the way I was in 8th grade he would pin me in the first period” -Kollin Moore on the talent that his coming through the youth and high school scene.
Talked about being his high schools first state champ and the experience and legacy he left behind there. He took 2nd place twice before finally winning the title his senior year. A good amount of guys after him won a state title after him which showed the legacy he was able to leave on the team and program.
Talked about one of the most iconic matches of his career where he wrestled Brett Pfarr in the Big Ten finals where he would go on to win his first conference title. He would go on to make his first junior world team this year.
Talked about the improvement that he was able to make from year to year. “When I was a freshman I was not that good, I just shot a lot and that overwhelmed some people.”
Mentioned his first home dual of his career where he wrestled J’den Cox and got a standing ovation after his 6-4 loss to the reigning National Champion and how it gave him that boost of confidence that he needed going forward.
A big part of his collegiate career was competing with guys such as Kyle Snyder and competing against guys like J’den Cox who both medaled at the Rio Olympics in 2016 with Snyder becoming the USA’s youngest gold medalist. He said he learned so much from training with Snyder everyday and how it helped him a lot in his career.
The trajectory of his career question gave an interesting response with him saying that it is all about keeping hishealth and body in good condition. He will be looking to compete through 2024 unless something big happens then he plans on taking some time off to assess where he is in life and how much passion he truly has for the sport at this point.
Also stressed how long of a turnover 4 years is between Olympic cycles and that is a big choice to choose and push through another cycle because you only have so long in the sport. The 2028 Olympics being in Los Angeles was a cool topic being that it is a solid possibility he will be competing until then.
With Snyder sitting in Final X Moore said that he will be eyeing that match heavily and he is definitely looking forward to his earlier matches against Mike Macchiavello and Kyven Gadson who he will most likely see on the way there.
Q: Top 3 collegiate wrestlers of all time
Ed Ruth
Kyle Dake
Mike McMullan
Overall thank you to Kollin for taking the time to talk to us on the podcast and we hop you guys check it out. You can follow his socials below.
