There's Moore to Come
Feb 24, 2026 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
It's Tuesday, which means we're three days away from the great Gary Moore Jr. perhaps putting another stamp on his remarkable past few months at the Big 12 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships in Lubbock, Texas — a meet that will showcase the Kansas State record holder and one of the top collegiate weight throwers in the nation. Shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, the 6-foot-1, 260-pound Moore will enter the ring for his first official weight throw attempt. Just him, a 35-pound weight chained to a metal implement, and a renewed mental approach. No numbers. Just fun. Three spins and let it fly.
Moore, a senior who ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference and No. 5 in the nation with a K-State record throw of 23.54 meters during the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 11 days ago, has traveled a long way for this moment, on the cusp of a Big 12 title, but there are more places to go along his final journey. The plan? To return to Fayetteville for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 13.
Then, who knows? But the immediate goals are attainable and waiting.
"First Team All-American is the main thing," Moore says. "Obviously, I want to win the Big 12 Championship. I'm focused on the national meet. I really want to be a First Team All-American since this is my last indoor season. I want to leave with one of those trophies. Since high school, I looked up to the athletes, and I always wanted one of those trophies, because I knew it'd be a cool moment and accomplishment.
"That's the main thing."
It was a little more than a year ago that Moore threw his first school record of 22.36 meters — a new school record by almost two feet — at the Steve Miller Invitational at the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track. Since then, the numbers have been flying for the native of New Haven, Connecticut, who transferred from Baylor prior to last year. First, Moore started the 2026 indoor season by breaking his previous school record with a throw of 23.14 meters on January 16 in the Thane Baker Invite. Two weeks later, he threw 23.01 at the DeLoss Dodds Invite. That, of course, was before he threw the weight the farthest than any K-State men's track athlete in history in Fayetteville.
"It was nice, it was cool," Moore says of his record throw of 23.54 meters in Fayetteville. "I had a really good warm-up throw so I knew I was feeling good. It was more so just finally putting it down on paper. It was like, 'Cool,' but I know I can go so much farther. It was a good stepping point to where I want to go. I know I still have more go to."
Numbers are important, see. For a year, Moore has tried to muscle his way to 23.00 meters. That was the first goal. He tried. He fought. He tried some more. It can get lonely in that ring — the man and the weight, three spins and let it fly.
There's a man who's become very important to Moore's life. His name is John Newell, the associate head coach and throwing coach at K-State. The coach/athlete relationship has flourished over two years. Newell brought 19 years of experience to K-State with his previous two stints at Vanderbilt (2023-24) and Arkansas (2022-23). He has coached one national champion, 41 First Team All-Americans and 22 conference champions.
Through those talks with Newell, inside an empty track facility, before, during and after practice, the internal fight and the muscling and the frustrations Moore experienced a year ago have transformed into an even flow, an inner calmness, where Moore and the weight dance in sweet harmony.
"The main thing is not doing too much, just staying in the throw," Moore says. "Before our second meet I threw 23.01 and was having a rough day. We usually do four turns in practice, but I do three turns, but I was off. Coach told me to relax. I try to do so much, hit the entry hard, hit every turn hard. He's like, 'Don't know anything off the first turn, just stay nice and relaxed.' That carried on through our meets to Arkansas. I knew what to do. I just had to relax.
"I couldn't let the moment get to me and stay in my own lane."
Then the K-State weight throw record fell. Again. In the arena of vast competition, Moore did what only Moore could do: Top himself.
"It feels like a while ago since I threw that 22.36 last year," Moore says. "So much stuff has happened since then. I look back sometimes at those moments and milestones that I passed to get to this point. I've matured 40 years in one year. It feels like a long time ago, but I can still see the effects of that development today. It's nice looking back from where I was last year to how much I've grown this year."
Newell whispers: Don't do too much.
Only two collegiate weight throwers have reached 24.00 meters this indoor season. Ryan Johnson of Iowa threw it 24.99 meters and Texas Tanner of Air Force threw it 24.18.
Numbers are important. Numbers are everything.
For Moore to succeed, numbers must mean nothing.
"I try not to think about the numbers because I've found that when I try to throw for distance it doesn't go far," he says. "I have to relax. This whole year I've done really well about not letting a number get into my head. Obviously, it's in the back of my head, but I never want it to be the main focus of everything that I do. I know if I focus on my technique everything else will come.
"When I force it, and I think 24.00, that's when things start going backward. But I want to achieve that and achieve it at the right moment. I'm not trying to force it, though. I'm just letting it flow."
Things began to flow for Moore at a young age. He grew up on the Hillhouse High School track that he eventually would dominate. His father, Gary Moore Sr., was the head track and field coach. His mother, Michele, was the middle-distance coach. Little Moore Jr. grew up with the shot put, hurdles and javelin, and eventually competed in the multi-events. Weight throw? He threw the weight just to take a break from shot put. As Moore Jr. grew, so did his talent. He truly became dedicated to the weight throw his junior year at Hillhouse High.
"My first year, my junior year, in my first meet, I threw 51 feet in October," Moore says. "In February, I threw 71 feet. It took off. I improved my 20 feet in a few months and broke the school record."
It was also the fifth-best weight throw in the nation by a high school athlete. Moore parlayed his performances into earning national All-American honors his senior year.
That drive? That came from his parents.
"My mom, her favorite quote, I think about this quote all the time, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard,'" Moore says. "People always said I had talent, so I knew if I had talent and worked hard that'd be my recipe for success. Working hard is just natural to me along with pushing through adversity and not kicking myself when I'm down and having a short-term memory."
Today, Gary Moore Sr. has won more than 45 state championships and was elected to the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame — and Moore Jr. sat with his parents at the induction dinner.
Moore's parents taught him so much. Among the many virtues? Never give up.
As a sophomore at Baylor, Moore set the school record at 20.97 meters in the weight throw.
But Moore sought something more.
"Coming from Baylor, my coach would tell us, 'We're never going to win this or do that,'" Moore says. "Coming from high school and my parents, we came from team success and winning championships. When I first came to college I got into the mindset that team success wasn't going to happen and to focus on yourself."
He truly wanted to join a team. He chose to join K-State.
Moore, one of the most gifted weight throwers in the country, harbors a massive frame. He rejoices in the fact that he doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders despite his star power on the K-State track and field team, which rose to No. 1 in the national rankings early this season, and has remained in the top five ever since.
Second-year K-State head coach Travis Geopfert has the Wildcats flying higher than ever before in school history.
"I love competing for a team and when it's not just me performing well for me, but me performing well for my teammates, so we can achieve a team goal," Moore says. "That's when I do my best work, when I don't have to overthink it. It's way easier for me to compete that way. That's a reason I'm competing well this season. I know what's not only at stake for me but for our team and I want to make sure I play my role in that."
Make no mistake, with Moore leading the way, and with the talent that surrounds him, K-State could go far as the competition ramps up — starting on Friday.
"I'm not a big talker, but I'll say we're good and the numbers show it," Moore says. "We have a lot of potential. We can win a national championship. We just have to do all the right things. I'm a big college football fan and you expect games to go a certain way, but you don't know which team is going to show up. It's the same here. We know we have the potential and pieces in place, but we have to keep our heads down. Good things are happening. We have to show it when it matters most."
But alas, it comes down to numbers. And numbers matter most. But for Moore, to reach success, numbers cannot matter. It's something he's learned in the last year, a methodology that has served him well, sending the enjoyment of competition sky high while taking down school record after school record.
Moore's talent will be on display beginning at 3:00 p.m. Friday at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas, as the potential All-American, who since a young boy has always wanted a trophy, could put up numbers we have never before seen in Manhattan — only if he doesn't pay attention to numbers at all.
"When you start letting numbers go into your head," he says, "you start going in the opposite direction. This is my senior year, and my confidence is at an all-time high. I definitely see that I can compete with the best out there."
It's just him, a 35-pound weight chained to a metal implement, and a renewed mental approach.
No numbers.
Just fun.
Three spins and let it fly.
It's Tuesday, which means we're three days away from the great Gary Moore Jr. perhaps putting another stamp on his remarkable past few months at the Big 12 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships in Lubbock, Texas — a meet that will showcase the Kansas State record holder and one of the top collegiate weight throwers in the nation. Shortly before 3 p.m. Friday, the 6-foot-1, 260-pound Moore will enter the ring for his first official weight throw attempt. Just him, a 35-pound weight chained to a metal implement, and a renewed mental approach. No numbers. Just fun. Three spins and let it fly.
Moore, a senior who ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 Conference and No. 5 in the nation with a K-State record throw of 23.54 meters during the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 11 days ago, has traveled a long way for this moment, on the cusp of a Big 12 title, but there are more places to go along his final journey. The plan? To return to Fayetteville for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 13.
Then, who knows? But the immediate goals are attainable and waiting.
"First Team All-American is the main thing," Moore says. "Obviously, I want to win the Big 12 Championship. I'm focused on the national meet. I really want to be a First Team All-American since this is my last indoor season. I want to leave with one of those trophies. Since high school, I looked up to the athletes, and I always wanted one of those trophies, because I knew it'd be a cool moment and accomplishment.
"That's the main thing."
It was a little more than a year ago that Moore threw his first school record of 22.36 meters — a new school record by almost two feet — at the Steve Miller Invitational at the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track. Since then, the numbers have been flying for the native of New Haven, Connecticut, who transferred from Baylor prior to last year. First, Moore started the 2026 indoor season by breaking his previous school record with a throw of 23.14 meters on January 16 in the Thane Baker Invite. Two weeks later, he threw 23.01 at the DeLoss Dodds Invite. That, of course, was before he threw the weight the farthest than any K-State men's track athlete in history in Fayetteville.
"It was nice, it was cool," Moore says of his record throw of 23.54 meters in Fayetteville. "I had a really good warm-up throw so I knew I was feeling good. It was more so just finally putting it down on paper. It was like, 'Cool,' but I know I can go so much farther. It was a good stepping point to where I want to go. I know I still have more go to."
Numbers are important, see. For a year, Moore has tried to muscle his way to 23.00 meters. That was the first goal. He tried. He fought. He tried some more. It can get lonely in that ring — the man and the weight, three spins and let it fly.
There's a man who's become very important to Moore's life. His name is John Newell, the associate head coach and throwing coach at K-State. The coach/athlete relationship has flourished over two years. Newell brought 19 years of experience to K-State with his previous two stints at Vanderbilt (2023-24) and Arkansas (2022-23). He has coached one national champion, 41 First Team All-Americans and 22 conference champions.
Through those talks with Newell, inside an empty track facility, before, during and after practice, the internal fight and the muscling and the frustrations Moore experienced a year ago have transformed into an even flow, an inner calmness, where Moore and the weight dance in sweet harmony.
"The main thing is not doing too much, just staying in the throw," Moore says. "Before our second meet I threw 23.01 and was having a rough day. We usually do four turns in practice, but I do three turns, but I was off. Coach told me to relax. I try to do so much, hit the entry hard, hit every turn hard. He's like, 'Don't know anything off the first turn, just stay nice and relaxed.' That carried on through our meets to Arkansas. I knew what to do. I just had to relax.
"I couldn't let the moment get to me and stay in my own lane."
Then the K-State weight throw record fell. Again. In the arena of vast competition, Moore did what only Moore could do: Top himself.
"It feels like a while ago since I threw that 22.36 last year," Moore says. "So much stuff has happened since then. I look back sometimes at those moments and milestones that I passed to get to this point. I've matured 40 years in one year. It feels like a long time ago, but I can still see the effects of that development today. It's nice looking back from where I was last year to how much I've grown this year."
Newell whispers: Don't do too much.
Only two collegiate weight throwers have reached 24.00 meters this indoor season. Ryan Johnson of Iowa threw it 24.99 meters and Texas Tanner of Air Force threw it 24.18.
Numbers are important. Numbers are everything.
For Moore to succeed, numbers must mean nothing.
"I try not to think about the numbers because I've found that when I try to throw for distance it doesn't go far," he says. "I have to relax. This whole year I've done really well about not letting a number get into my head. Obviously, it's in the back of my head, but I never want it to be the main focus of everything that I do. I know if I focus on my technique everything else will come.
"When I force it, and I think 24.00, that's when things start going backward. But I want to achieve that and achieve it at the right moment. I'm not trying to force it, though. I'm just letting it flow."
Things began to flow for Moore at a young age. He grew up on the Hillhouse High School track that he eventually would dominate. His father, Gary Moore Sr., was the head track and field coach. His mother, Michele, was the middle-distance coach. Little Moore Jr. grew up with the shot put, hurdles and javelin, and eventually competed in the multi-events. Weight throw? He threw the weight just to take a break from shot put. As Moore Jr. grew, so did his talent. He truly became dedicated to the weight throw his junior year at Hillhouse High.
"My first year, my junior year, in my first meet, I threw 51 feet in October," Moore says. "In February, I threw 71 feet. It took off. I improved my 20 feet in a few months and broke the school record."
It was also the fifth-best weight throw in the nation by a high school athlete. Moore parlayed his performances into earning national All-American honors his senior year.
That drive? That came from his parents.
"My mom, her favorite quote, I think about this quote all the time, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard,'" Moore says. "People always said I had talent, so I knew if I had talent and worked hard that'd be my recipe for success. Working hard is just natural to me along with pushing through adversity and not kicking myself when I'm down and having a short-term memory."
Today, Gary Moore Sr. has won more than 45 state championships and was elected to the Connecticut Coaches Hall of Fame — and Moore Jr. sat with his parents at the induction dinner.
Moore's parents taught him so much. Among the many virtues? Never give up.
As a sophomore at Baylor, Moore set the school record at 20.97 meters in the weight throw.
But Moore sought something more.
"Coming from Baylor, my coach would tell us, 'We're never going to win this or do that,'" Moore says. "Coming from high school and my parents, we came from team success and winning championships. When I first came to college I got into the mindset that team success wasn't going to happen and to focus on yourself."
He truly wanted to join a team. He chose to join K-State.
Moore, one of the most gifted weight throwers in the country, harbors a massive frame. He rejoices in the fact that he doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders despite his star power on the K-State track and field team, which rose to No. 1 in the national rankings early this season, and has remained in the top five ever since.
Second-year K-State head coach Travis Geopfert has the Wildcats flying higher than ever before in school history.
"I love competing for a team and when it's not just me performing well for me, but me performing well for my teammates, so we can achieve a team goal," Moore says. "That's when I do my best work, when I don't have to overthink it. It's way easier for me to compete that way. That's a reason I'm competing well this season. I know what's not only at stake for me but for our team and I want to make sure I play my role in that."
Make no mistake, with Moore leading the way, and with the talent that surrounds him, K-State could go far as the competition ramps up — starting on Friday.
"I'm not a big talker, but I'll say we're good and the numbers show it," Moore says. "We have a lot of potential. We can win a national championship. We just have to do all the right things. I'm a big college football fan and you expect games to go a certain way, but you don't know which team is going to show up. It's the same here. We know we have the potential and pieces in place, but we have to keep our heads down. Good things are happening. We have to show it when it matters most."
But alas, it comes down to numbers. And numbers matter most. But for Moore, to reach success, numbers cannot matter. It's something he's learned in the last year, a methodology that has served him well, sending the enjoyment of competition sky high while taking down school record after school record.
Moore's talent will be on display beginning at 3:00 p.m. Friday at the Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas, as the potential All-American, who since a young boy has always wanted a trophy, could put up numbers we have never before seen in Manhattan — only if he doesn't pay attention to numbers at all.
"When you start letting numbers go into your head," he says, "you start going in the opposite direction. This is my senior year, and my confidence is at an all-time high. I definitely see that I can compete with the best out there."
It's just him, a 35-pound weight chained to a metal implement, and a renewed mental approach.
No numbers.
Just fun.
Three spins and let it fly.
Players Mentioned
/ Track & Field
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