Wrestling is a Fine Match for Riverview Teen

Wrestling like a girl isn’t something to take lightly, based on Megan Moroney’s track record.

Last season, which was just her second year on the Riverview wrestling team, the Verona 15-year-old was promoted from the junior varsity to the varsity squad.

She placed fourth in sections in the 106 weight class and made it to the WPIAL finals, where she competed in the 103 bracket.

Even before reaching her opponents, Megan had to work hard.

“I was wrestling the 119 (weight class) in practice because our 112 quit,” she explained.

Mom Cindy Moroney said that neither teammates nor opponents gave her daughter a break because she was a girl. And she didn’t either.

Though her daughter was always a tomboy with a natural athletic ability, Cindy Moroney was unsure about letting her joining the Raiders wrestling team, where Megan’s older brother, Marcus Moroney, was already a member.

“She put up quite a fight to join,” Cindy Moroney said. “And she proved me and everybody else wrong.”

After WPIALs, Megan said her record was 14 – 17.

She was happy to move up to the varsity squad as a ninth-grader. She’s already preparing for her tenth grade year with intense conditioning.

The wins under her belt include a few that surprised her opponents, some of whom struggled with the prospect of wrestling a girl, Megan said.

While many of those she came up against underestimated her, they didn’t want to wrestle her because of the possibility that she would defeat them.

One opponent was particularly unnerved after losing, according to Megan.

“I don’t know if he cried because he lost the match or because he lost to a girl,” she said.

Cindy Moroney said that many opponents think the match will be a clean sweep until Megan gets a hold of them.

“It’s hard, especially if you’re sitting by their parents in the stands—especially their dads,” she said.

Megan said she makes an effort to seek out her opponents at the end of the competition, particularly when they are obviously down.

“I just want them to know I’m not being a jerk about it,” she said.

Her winning attitude and determination are clear off of the mat as well, where she swims and skateboards.

Megan has been in gifted classes since the fourth grade and has played in the school’s orchestra since then, as well. In addition to playing the violin, she plays guitar and the organ.

Her ambitions already extend beyond high school.

Megan said she would like to become a veterinarian one day. She is well known in her family for taking in injured animals and nursing them back to health and finding homes for strays.

Though that may contrast with the determined and, as she admits, aggressive, streak that motivates Megan as a wrestler, it ties into the lesson she said she’s learned from her journey to the mat: keep your head up.

“I take that literally,” she said. “I don’t give up on the things I do.”