Whitfield's Porter Matecki caps career with fourth Missouri state wrestling championship
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – Porter Matecki thought his dream might be over.
The Whitfield senior wrestler came into his final season with three Missouri state championships on his resume and a fourth within sight, but when he fractured his elbow in two places he thought maybe becoming a four-time champ was no longer a possibility.
On Saturday night, that dream came true.
Matecki defeated Farmington’s Presley Johnson with a 5-0 decision to win the Missouri Class 3 championship at 126 pounds on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena and become just the fifth wrestler in Whitfield history to win four state titles.
“It is a big relief, it means a lot,” Matecki said. “Like after Stampede this season, I fractured my elbow in two places. So I thought, like, maybe that dream was over. But I came back and it feels great.”
Matecki, who has signed to wrestle at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, finished his senior season with a 26-2 record.
He won the Missouri Class title at 106 pounds as a freshman in 2021, at 120 pounds as a sophomore in 2022 and then at 126 pounds as a junior and as a senior.
Matecki, ranked as the No. 22 wrestler at 126 pounds in the SBLive national wrestling rankings, was one of just two wrestlers in Columbia this weekend to achieve the feat - with Liberty senior Gavin Linsman, who spent his first two years at Whitfield, matching Matecki's fourth later on Saturday night.
Matecki had a dominant run through the 126-pound bracket on Friday and Saturday in Columbia.
He pinned Marshfield freshman Mac Mohnen in 35 seconds in the first round, defeated Hillsboro junior Jordan Penick with a technical fall in 4:12 in the quarterfinals and then pinned Warrenton senior Jeremiah Kassing in 5:26 in the semifinals. (Hillsboro’s Penick defeated Kassing on Saturday to take third-place.)
Against Johnson in the finals on Saturday, Matecki’s first-period takedown proved to be all the scoring he would need.
“Once I scored, I knew I had it in the bag,” he said. “I just had to keep wrestling how I wrestle and it was gravy from there.”
The Whitfield standout scored three more points in the third period to secure the victory and was able to celebrate that elusive fourth consecutive state championship.
“It was always always a goal of mine from when I was a freshman to be a four-timer and then now being a four-timer it's just another step in the journey,” Matecki said. “Now college next year and a lot more goals to be done.”
Matecki’s successful run at state helped Whitfield finish third in the Class 3 team standings behind Hannibal and Hillsboro. The Warriors, who finished second a year ago, won state titles in Matecki’s first two seasons.
The senior’s legacy as one of the best wrestlers in Whitfield history was already secured before Saturday as a three-time individual champion and two-time team champion, but he added to it with that fourth state title.
“I mean, it's always been a goal,” Matecki said. “I mean, it's like a standard in the program to be a state champ. And having people be four-timers before me, it just let me know what I have to do and do even more than them and I can easily achieve this.”
Whitfield's Porter Matecki
Photo by Nate Latsch, SBLive Sports
Photo by Nate Latsch, SBLive Sports
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
