Record Newspapers Wrestler of the Year: Yorkville’s Ben Alvarez, fueled by past results, realized potential with state title

Ben Alvarez’s wrestling season began with the air of anticipation, and some corresponding fun from the Yorkville junior’s friends.

When Alvarez was ranked No. 1 at 220 pounds in Class 3A in the preseason by Illinois MatMen, friends were already asking how he’d celebrate a state title.

“Coaches and friends would talk about it, they would joke how would I win state and I’d tell them, ‘Well see, it’s tough,’” Alvarez said. “It was always a thought that lingered in my mind, though. I knew I was one of the better kids in the state.”

It turns out, the best.

Alvarez, with a 3-2 win over Loyola’s Kai Calcutt in an ultimate tiebreaker at the state meet Feb. 18 in Champaign, won the Class 3A 220-pound championship to cap off a 38-8 season. The next week, Alvarez helped lead Yorkville to fourth place in Class 3A at Team Dual state in the Foxes’ first appearance there since 2012.

He is the Record Newspapers Wrestler of the Year.

Alvarez has had quite the athletic school year. A linebacker/running back in football, he was a two-way starter for a Yorkville football team that reached its first quarterfinal since 1999. But Alvarez sprained the MCL in his knee in Yorkville’s four-overtime second-round win over Moline, which forced him to wear a brace at the start of wrestling season.

“I started feeling better, got the brace off, started wrestling better,” Alvarez said. “It’s pretty cool to do something like that [win state], to achieve the highest standard in Illinois wrestling. Beginning of the year was not my best start, battling that lingering injury from football. Once I got back on the mat I started to gain my confidence back.”

A turning point came in the two weeks leading up to individual state. Alvarez was pinned by Normal’s Cooper Caraway in a semifinal match at regionals, but came back to win a decision over Caraway for the sectional championship.

“I knew I shouldn’t have lost that first match,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez as a junior had lost his blood-round match at state in overtime, which kept him off the medal stand. This time he beat Calcutt in extra time for the third time this season.

“Every time, it’s been a little close, a little closer,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. “You can’t get much closer than final, overtime, rideouts. I’m proud of the kid. He’s awesome.”

“That loss last year, it definitely for sure was something I remembered throughout the whole year. That kid I ended up losing to got third,” Alvarez said. “He placed pretty well. I feel I could have placed last year. Knowing that, going into the state series, I didn’t want to feel that again. I used that as fuel.”

It was Yorkville’s 15th state wrestling championship, the first since Nick Stemmet did so in 2020. Alvarez said Stemmet and his twin brother, Ben, fourth at 220 pounds in 2020, kept close tabs on Alvarez’s progress this postseason.

“For sure, Nick and Ben, they kept texting me whenever I was doing good, regionals and sectionals they would always hit me up with congrats,” Alvarez said. “They’d tell me ‘We know you’re nervous, but the other kid is nervous, too. Just wrestle your match.’ It’s cool to be in a conversation like that.”

Alvarez got started wrestling at a young age, about 5, through his mom’s friends. Current Yorkville Christian coach Mike Vester and Travis Martinez, dad of Yorkville Christian’s Tyler Martinez, got him into it wrestling with their wrestling club.

“He’s been training me probably for the last decade – a lot of props to them,” Alvarez said. “I got started young, good thing wrestling-wise. I feel that it benefited me.”

In elementary school Alvarez won state in the Midget and Bantam levels, and got second at the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation state meet as a seventh grader. Eighth grade state was lost to the pandemic, steeling Alvarez’s resolve.

“I was thinking about remembering that I had lost in middle school,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t want to feel that way again. It worked out well.”