CHAMPAIGN — In a flash, Cole Matulenko was a state champion.
With one stunning, powerful move, the Libertyville senior who hadn’t won a match at state before this season had closed his high school career on top.
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“It’s surreal,” Matulenko said. “I’m still kind of in shock. Two or three years ago, I was sharing time on varsity. This is crazy. What this has taught me is that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
“I’m in no way the most talented wrestler here, but I feel like I’m one of the hardest-working.”
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Matulenko broke the record for fastest pin in a Class 3A 195-pound championship match, beating Marist’s Peter Marinopoulos in just 31 seconds at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center on Saturday night.
Only a few seconds into the match, Matulenko (44-4) got a strong hold of the top-seeded Marinopoulos (20-1), lifted him up and slammed him to the ground.
Marinopoulos appeared to suffer a head injury and was clearly dazed and unable to fight back as Matulenko finished off the pin. That put a bit of a damper on the win, but Matulenko undoubtedly earned his spot at the top of the podium.
“That’s not how I want to win it,” he said. “I was going in there preparing for a battle. He’s an amazing wrestler. He’s proved himself time and again. It’s a shame, but a win’s a win.”
Ending his high school career with a victory over the Illinois-bound Marinopoulos was a full-circle moment for Matulenko, a Wisconsin-Eau Claire recruit.
Qualifying for state for the first time last season, Matulenko drew Marinopoulos — one of the tournament’s favorites at the time — in the first round. Marinopoulos dominated him with a 15-6 major decision.
Marinopoulos finished as the state runner-up. Matulenko, meanwhile, was pinned by Glenbard West’s Philip Dozier in his next match and headed home 0-2 — grateful for the experience but fired up to do much more.
“It definitely pushed me,” Matulenko said. “On the bus ride home, there’s a song I like to listen to, ‘Hell’s Comin’ with Me’ by Poor Man’s Poison. That’s what I was thinking. ‘I’m going back to state next year, and hell’s coming with me.’”
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Libertyville coach Dale Eggert saw Matulenko, who also plays football and is a thrower in track and field, take his work ethic to another level for his senior season. In fact, Eggert had to tell him to dial it down a little bit.
“He trained so hard, and he was kind of getting tired,” Eggert said. “I told him to back off a bit. He said, ‘Won’t it hurt me?’ I told him, ‘If you cut back on the training a little bit, as hard as you’ve been working, you’re going to feel like a million bucks.’ He was definitely feeling great in the postseason.”
Marinopoulos, who entered the match undefeated, is the kind of guy Matulenko said would have intimidated him in the past.
To become a state champion, Matulenko had to get rid of that mentality.
“Last year and even at the start of this year, I was putting guys on a pedestal,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, that guy’s so good, there’s no way I can beat him.’
“But I stopped caring about that. Rankings didn’t matter. I was No. 1 in my head.”
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Matulenko is truly No. 1 now.
“I’m probably going to be jumping up and down in my bedroom at midnight when this finally hits me,” he said. “It’s going to be awesome.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
