Whitfield's Porter Matecki was off to a strong start in his senior wrestling season when he suffered a serious injury.
Read about the St. Louis area's top high school boys wrestlers and their accomplishments throughout the 2023-24 season.
Shortly after defending his title at the prestigious KC Stampede in December and improving to 13-0, Matecki went down during a practice session with a teammate.
"He put me in a cradle and I was probably defending harder than I needed,'' the 18-year-old Matecki recalled. "I stuck my arm out, he did a suicide roll and my arm snapped. I took some time to settle down and eventually talked to our trainer. He said he thought it was a sprained elbow, but I had trouble moving my arm while I was driving home and when I got home, the arm was completely swollen.
"My parents took me to the hospital; I fractured the humerus and radius of my right arm."
At that point, Matecki said, a return to finish his senior season was 50/50. He did what he could to help teammates, went to physical therapy and tried to stay hopeful.
People are also reading…
"He was down, a little depressed, so we did what we could to keep his spirits up,'' said Buddy Smith, who shares the Whitfield head coaching duties with Matt Politte. "Porter was out for a month and a half, but with the help of therapy, he eventually started to feel better. And with Porter's heart and grit, I knew that if there was any way possible, he'd find a way to come back."
Matecki returned to the Warriors lineup at 126 pounds with a couple of weeks left in the regular season and eventually picked up where he left off.
Heading into the district tournament, he was seeded second.
"They poked the bear,'' Smith joked. "And I made sure that Porter knew."
In the Class 3 District 2 tournament at North Point, Matecki won by first-period pin and two technical falls, including a 15-0 victory over the top-seeded opponent in the championship match. He carried that momentum into Mizzou Arena and cruised to the championship, winning by pin, tech fall and pin to earn another title shot.
He won 5-0 over Farmington's Presley Johnson in the final, capping a 26-2 season and finishing his high school career at 152-10. He became the 41st four-time champion in Missouri history.
Matecki is the Post-Dispatch All-Metro boys wrestler of the year.
Interestingly, with a Class 4 title at 150, Liberty's Gavin Linsman became Missouri's 142nd four-timer that same day. Linsman started his high school career at Whitfield and won his first two individual titles and a pair of Class 1 team championships with the Warriors before moving to the Kansas City area. He and Matecki remain friends.
"I'm proud of what I've been able to accomplish and I'm glad I was able to finish it off with another championship,'' said Matecki, who joined Rodney Hahn (2011-14), Mike McAteer (2015-18), Evan Binder (2019-22) and A.J. Rallo (2020-23) as Whitfield's four-time state champions. "I wasn't 100 percent at the end of the season, but I did what I needed to do and I think the experience will benefit me moving forward. I saw the pluses of being more aggressive in matches and I think that's something that'll help me improve at the next level."
Matecki accepted a scholarship and signed with SIU Edwardsville in November. There, he expects to major in exercise science.
"I'm excited about the challenges moving forward,'' said Matecki, who has expressed an interest in pursuing mixed martial arts fighting after his college wrestling career is completed. "My goal is to work my butt off and earn a starting spot either at 125 or 133 next season. It'll be a transition — everybody's tough at that next level — but I feel like SIUE is a program on the rise and I'm looking forward to being a part of it."
Smith, who wrestled at the University of Missouri, is excited to see Matecki compete at the next level.
"The kid knows how to win, and he can do it in a bunch of different ways," the coach said. "He drew recruiting interest from a lot of schools, but he really likes SIU. He's excited about his future and about competing close to home."
Read about the St. Louis area's top high school boys wrestlers and their accomplishments throughout the 2023-24 season.