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Wrestling: 46-0! Yorkville's Nick Stemmet caps unbeaten season with state title

Foxes' senior pins West Aurora wrestler in final; Ben Stemmet takes fourth

By KALEB CARTER

Nick Stemmet took down West Aurora’s Dzhabrail Khurshidov within the first five seconds of the match, worked on top, and secured an emphatic fall at the 1:40 mark to claim his first state title, as well as an undefeated season, It's the 14th state championship in Yorkville wrestling history, first since AJ Messenger in 2011. Stemmet (46-0), second as a sophomore and fourth as a junior, is the first Foxes' wrestler to finish undefeated since Dan Niles did so back to back in 1999-2000. Stemmet's brother Ben took fourth at 220 pounds as both finished their high school careers on the state podium. “There’s so many sources of confidence going into my final match," Stemmet said. "I could sit here and identify all the different ones. It’s all the people around me: my brother, my family, my coaches, my friends, the community of Yorkville, everybody is just so supportive of me.” (Eric Ginnard)

Nick Stemmet took down West Aurora’s Dzhabrail Khurshidov within the first five seconds of the match, worked on top, and secured an emphatic fall at the 1:40 mark to claim his first state title, as well as an undefeated season, It's the 14th state championship in Yorkville wrestling history, first since AJ Messenger in 2011. Stemmet (46-0), second as a sophomore and fourth as a junior, is the first Foxes' wrestler to finish undefeated since Dan Niles did so back to back in 1999-2000. Stemmet's brother Ben took fourth at 220 pounds as both finished their high school careers on the state podium. “There’s so many sources of confidence going into my final match," Stemmet said. "I could sit here and identify all the different ones. It’s all the people around me: my brother, my family, my coaches, my friends, the community of Yorkville, everybody is just so supportive of me.” (Eric Ginnard)

It was Nick Stemmet's time to shine this year, having bided his time behind two of the country's better 182-pound wrestlers of the last two years, Abe Assad of Glenbard North and Jack Jessen of Northwestern. Stemmet lost in the championship match as a sophomore to Jessen, who finished that season undefeated. Stemmet said training and competing against wrestlers like that has only pushed him further in his craft. “That’s just Nick," Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. "He goes out there, he wrestles hard, he attacks. I told him, this guy likes big moves. He likes ties and throws so get to your offense, your hands and feet moving and that’s just how Nick wrestled.” Nick Stemmet's Friday quarterfinal, a 5-3 win over his friend, Oak Park=River Forest's Daemyen Middlebrooks, gave him the confidence to open up his offense over his final two matches. Ben also said that he was nervous about Stemmet facing Middlebrooks. “Seeing that he was on my side of the bracket freaked me out a bit," Nick Stemmet said. "I was like oh (shoot). That was definitely the most tired I’ve been and the hardest match I’ve had all year." (Eric Ginnard)

Ben Stemmet lost his final match at the hands of a familiar foe in Barrington's Evan Roper, dropping his third-place match by fall in the second period to take fourth at 220 pounds. Stemmet also took fourth as a junior. “I’m definitely disappointed," said Ben Stemmet, who will wrestle collegiately at Air Force. "I set out this season to win a state title and I didn’t do that.” The other Foxes wrestler competing at state was Cole Ferguson at 138 pounds, who went 1-2 and bowed out Friday. “You’ve got goals of being a state champ with your brother and you lose, it can be crushing," Oster said. "A lot of guys will just turn away, cower, turn away and give up, but Ben fought back, won three matches in a row to get to that third-place match and Roper is just good.” Ben Stemmet, while expressing pride for his brother, had to weigh the disappointment of a season that started with him recognized as the best wrestler in his class heading into the season. he was able to take pride in defeating semifinalists, the likes of which Nick had beaten as well. Injuries and wear and tear took its toll, but the fourth-place finisher came away with solid perspective. "Wrestling doesn’t really define us," Ben Stemmet said. "You think wrestlers, that’s all there is, but we’ve been raised not to let failures or successes in a sport to define us.” Sandwich's Braulio Flores (34-14) dropped his final match at state on Saturday to Mt. Carmel's Dayton Hall by a 4-0 decision. (Matthew Apgar)

Sandwich's Braulio Flores wrestles Mt Carmel's Dayton Hall in their 132 pound 1A bout during the third and final day of IHSA individual state wrestling on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020 at the State Farm Center at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in Champaign. (Matthew Apgar)