When you hear Cassville has a state champion wrestler, you probably think she’s ‘Country Strong.’
“I’m not a country girl,” said Cassville senior wrestler Annie Moore, with a laugh. “I’m as city as you can get in Cassville. Like suburban.”
And you may think any wrestler with over 100 wins in her career must lift a lot of heavy weights.
“I’m not consistently in the gym,” Annie said.
“It’s just all-natural strength,” said Assistant Girls Wrestling Coach Casey Parsons. “She doesn’t do anything in the offseason except run.”
“I like bench day,” Annie said. “I do not like leg day. I will skip leg day every time. Leg day sucks.”
Then she must have a pretty hardcore pre-match routine. “Annie has to have her makeup on before she wrestles,” Parsons said.
“It’s like a tradition,” Annie said, with a laugh. “If I don’t have it on, it makes me really nervous. I always have it on.”
And when she steps into the ring wearing her version of war paint, she becomes something that has earned her a nickname from her coaches. “Last year we called her ‘Annie the Animal,'” Parsons said.
“My wrestling coach calls me that because he thinks I’m crazy,” Annie said, with a laugh. “He says they can’t teach me what I do. That I’m just, like, sporadic. So he calls me ‘The Animal.’ So I don’t know.”
Annie hones her animal instincts by walking on her hands in her free time. She’s also a state qualifier in both track and cross country. “It always helps just being able to breathe,” Annie said. “And have that endurance so you don’t wear out as fast. So you have enough stamina to make it through and last a six-minute match. ”
If they ever went that long. At the Nixa Girls Invitational, it took Annie less than two minutes total to pin five wrestlers and win the 120-pound title. Her coaches can’t wait to see where she can take the program this year.
“It’s just Annie’s world and we’re living in it,” Parsons said. “She’s a wonderful girl. She’s just unique. She’s just Annie.”
And in Annie’s animal kingdom, all she needs is her makeup and a mat to prove she’s one of the best.
