Wrestling notes: Now a full-time wrestler, Yorkville’s Ben Alvarez enjoying stellar sophomore year

Ben Alvarez had a freshman orientation to high school sports last spring unlike any other.

Alvarez, now a Yorkville sophomore, juggled wrestling and baseball at the same time in a school year’s athletic calendar jammed into five months.

In one week, he even sprinkled in a little football for good measure.

“Freshman year for me, it was different, juggling two and even three sports at one time,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t go to many practices for wrestling. I just showed up and wrestled.”

Now a full-time wrestler, Alvarez is recognizing the fruits of a singular focus. The Foxes’ 220-pounder is ranked fourth in Class 3A by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association with a 34-4 record, and a big reason why ninth-ranked Yorkville is unbeaten in duals and the favorite going into this weekend’s Southwest Prairie Conference meet.

“He’s progressing well; it’s good to see him on a full-time wrestling schedule,” Yorkville coach Jake Oster said. “He’s made a lot of progress from the beginning of last year, developed a lot more offense and confidence in his wrestling abilities. Sometimes that is what separates the good wrestlers, is that self belief.”

Oster said that Alvarez practiced last year probably fewer than 10 times, but was with the team regularly by the postseason. He was a state qualifier at 195 pounds.

“You could see that he was talented. You wanted to see how he could turn out wrestling all day every day,” Oster said. “It’s more time to improve on one thing and clean things up.”

Alvarez, an All-Area linebacker in football in the fall, clearly has natural wrestling ability.

He said he’s been wrestling since he was 4 or 5 – “my mom threw me into a bunch of sports, and I just fell in love with it, the one-on-one aspect of wrestling.” As a seventh-grader he placed second in the state.

“It was a good experience to have,” he said.

So was a double overtime loss to Providence’s third-ranked senior Liam McDermott at the Dvorak in December. At Barrington Alvarez won a triple overtime decision over Joliet West’s Bryan McCoy, ranked ninth in the state.

“That match at the Dvorak was a big learning experience; that kid will be in our sectional and I know what I will need to work on,” Alvarez said. “I won that Barrington match at the last second. That was a good feeling against good competition.”

Wrestling full-time has evidently been helpful to Alvarez in grinding through difficult matches such as those.

“Stamina was a big one for me last year,” Alvarez said. “I would show up and would be gassed out by the end of the first period. This year I’m getting in the room more and able to get through those tougher matches and have more energy.”

Besides Alvarez’s natural abilities, Oster said he has a feel on the mat and doesn’t get rattled.

“He stays composed,” Oster said. “He’s not someone that will throw the kitchen sink at you and is all wild. Just solid wrestling, sticks to his basic techniques.”

Alvarez and the Foxes look forward to an SPC meet at West Aurora that should be a good precursor to the postseason.

“It will be a good measuring stick for regionals; our regional is eight of the conference teams, minus the Joliets, Minooka and West Aurora,” Oster said. “It should be a good understanding of where we are at.”

The Yorkville Christian wrestling team placed third at the Marty Williams Invitational in Mahomet Jan. 15.

Yorkville Christian third at Mahomet, eyeing 20 dual wins

Yorkville Christian continued a busy January with a third-place finish at the Marty Williams Invitational at Mahomet-Seymour last weekend. The Mustangs, despite missing two weight classes, finished behind only Naperville Central and host Mahomet.

Yorkville Christian had five wrestlers in the finals, most of any team at the tournament. At 132 pounds Noah Dial won a 12-2 major decision in the final to improve his season record to 28-6. Tyler Martinez at 160 pounds had a key late takedown to seal a 3-1 win in the championship match.

Yorkville Christian’s Isaac Bourge (120) and Jackson Gillen (170) lost one-point decisions in the finals to Class 2A-ranked wrestlers and freshman Aiden Larsen lost 5-2 to a 2A-ranked junior from Mahomet. Drew Torza took third after losing a close semifinal match. Heavyweight Michael Esquivel placed fifth.

“Noah has been really consistent, but right now he’s putting together dominating performances even against top-notch guys. He was in total control and that is very telling to how well he can do in the postseason,” Mustangs coach Mike Vester said. “Martinez, that kid was having a good tournament but Tyler got to his offense first and he controlled the pace of the match. I was happy with how he managed the match.”

Yorkville Christian previously traveled to Kenosha, Wisc. for the prestigious Cheesehead Invitational. Facing multiple nationally-ranked programs Yorkville Christian – the smallest school to get an invite – finished 16th out of 28 teams. Martinez and Esquivel finished eight in their respective weight classes, Gillen ninth and Dial 10th.

The Mustangs, who beat Newman Catholic 65-6 in a dual Tuesday, are scheduled to face Joliet Catholic, St. Patrick and Downers Grove North in a quad in Joliet Saturday and wrap up their dual season next Thursday against Naperville Central. Highlighting the win over Newman was fourth-ranked Bourge’s 3-2 decision over second-ranked Brady Grennan.

“We are 17-5 in duals going into this week, we win three out the last four that’s 20 wins and we’ve only wrestled three 1A teams all year,” Vester said. “It’s a good accomplishment against a good schedule. The guys have embraced it.”

Short-handed Sandwich fourth at Comet Classic

Sandwich, minus its full complement of wrestlers, took fourth behind Bradley, Reed-Custer and Seneca at the Comet Classic over the weekend. The Indians brought seven wrestlers to the meet.

“We wrestled at the Prairie Classic two weekends ago and took first with 11 kids. With seven wrestlers we lost by 41.5 points,” Sandwich coach Derek Jones said. “With four or five more kids we would have been able to win it.”

Sandwich 152-pounder Aidan Linden (37-3) set program records for career technical falls and points recorded in a season with four technical falls at the meet.

“Aidan has tech falled probably about 90% of the kids he has wrestled,” Jones said. “He opened things up in the first period and took control of the match.”

At 182 pounds Sandwich’s Alex Alfaro (35-1), wrestling a kid he had pinned in a previous match, won a 9-4 decision over Wheaton Academy’s Hunter Kazmierczak. Alfaro is currently ranked No. 1 in the state by IWCOA.

“I think Alex thought he was going to have an easier route but he pulled it out,” Jones said. “Alex has been wrestling tough all year. His only loss is to a top three or four wrestler from Marmion at Barrington.”

Sandwich’s Evan Reilly took third at 138, Miles Corder third at 126, Sy Smith fourth at 132 and Bryce Decker fourth at 160 at Reed-Custer.

Next up for the Indians is the Interstate Eight Conference meet this weekend at Sycamore, where Jones expects his team to be in contention for a top spot.

“I’d be surprised if we fall outside of the top three,” he said. “Sycamore and Rochelle are the only teams we lost to all year and both are very tough. I think we match up well with both. We could come out and win conference.”

Jones said the 152-pound weight class is by far the toughest weight class with Linden and Sycamore’s Brayden Peet, the defending IWCOA state champ, headlining the field.