Student-Athlete of the Week: Max Pechersewski

Like many high school wrestlers, junior Max Pechersewski followed his father’s footsteps into the sport. However, it took a bit of nudging to get him there.

“During my freshman year, my parents wanted me to do a sport and I don’t really like basketball that much,” he said. “I knew my dad did wrestling, so I went out to try it. There were some supportive people that helped me find clubs, and I just kept going from there.”

Pechersewski is now in his third year with the Niwot wrestling program, and has become one of its most reliable and consistent wrestlers. He said he enjoys the intensity and individual nature of the sport far more than team-centered athletics.

“You don’t have to rely on others or depend on anyone else to show up,” he said. “I feel like after wrestling, win or lose, I did something I can be proud of, and I worked really hard.”

Pechersewski has been wrestling in the 113- and 120-lb weight classes this season, up from 106 as a freshman and sophomore. He doesn’t have a ton of wins so far, but he is on pace to eclipse last year’s total and has been lasting longer in matches and competing further into tournaments.

That has not gone unnoticed by Cougar head wrestling coach Bobby Matthews. He said that the junior’s diligence and commitment to the sport have made him easy to coach over the past three seasons. “Max has come a long way since his freshman year. Of all the wrestlers we have, Max wrestles more than any of them off-season. He’s starting to open up and wrestle really, really well. He’s the proof that hard work pays off.”

Pechersewski agreed with the coach’s assessment about his “persistence.”

“I did not have a good freshman year,” he said. “It was pretty rough, but I pushed through it and kept improving from there.”

The junior has set himself a high goal for this season—to place in the upcoming Regional—and said he’s confident of achieving it, even though the he had his doubts back in December. He has also been struggling with a chore every wrestler faces eventually: cutting weight, which has meant “a lot of nights without food or water or late nights running.”

“I started off the season with a concussion and dislocated shoulder,” he said. He suffered the shoulder injury during a lifting accident and the head injury during club wrestling. “So the start of the season was rough. I was a bit more out of shape than everyone because I was out for so long, and everything hurt with my right arm.”

When he’s not on the mat for the Cougars, Pechersewski enjoys working on cars, and has ambitions of being an automotive engineer. Consequently, his course load at Niwot includes AP math and computer science, as well as IB Physics, though he’s not formally pursuing an IB diploma. He is currently hoping to attend either Michigan or Embry-Riddle after graduation.