Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The much-anticipated prep debut season for City High freshman phenom Ben Kueter got a delayed start and came with somewhat of an unexciting beginning.  

A broken leg sustained during football season kept Kueter out of competition for the first month of the season.

Then the first official win of his prep career came in hum drum fashion via a forfeit in December.

However, since he returned to the mat full-time in January the highly-regarded Kueter has been as good as advertised.

Kueter has opened his career in dominating fashion, rattling off 16 consecutive wins.

“I feel really good, I feel like I am back to where I was before the injury,” Kueter said. “These last three weeks are going to be fun.”

The injury to his tibia in October kept Kueter off the wrestling mat and away from essentially all training activities for six full weeks.

For a wrestling that competes at a high level year round a month and a half away from the sport was a new experience for Kueter.

“I can’t remember a time I’ve been away from it for that long, I probably haven’t ever gone six weeks without wrestling,” Kueter said. “It was tough but I got a lot of mental training.”

Once he returned from injury in January it didn’t take long for Kueter to return to form.

Kueter won the first five matches of his career by fall with just three of his first 16 matches lasting the full six minutes.  

“The conditioning was probably the biggest part,” Kueter said of returning to form. I came back a week before winter break and I got my conditioning back up.”

Kueter is 17-0 on the season with 11 pins and two more wins via tech fall to go with his forfeit win.

All but one of his 16 contested matches has resulted in bonus point wins.

“He is unreal when he is moving, when he is shooting and attack and his offense and defense is working,” City High coach Cory Connell said. “He has gotten a lot better on top and he’s gotten better on bottom. It’s just little things that he needs to continue to work on to become the best kid in the state.”

In what has already been an impressive season for Kueter the most impressive performance came last Saturday when he claiming the 160-pound title at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet earning most outstanding wrestler in the process.

Kueter had a pair of first-period pins and a 20-5 tech fall that ended 54 seconds into the second period to reach the 160-pound title match.

In the finals sixth-ranked Kueter earned a 5-3 decision over third-ranked Linn-Mar freshman Tate Naaktgeboren.

“I feel like I am going to start peaking soon,” Kueter said. “This is the part of the season you look forward to so I’m excited.”

City High closes the regular season at home on Thursday hosting Waterloo East in an MVC dual.

The attention for Kueter and the Little Hawks will then turn to the postseason which starts on February 15 with a Class 3a district meet at West High where Kueter will seek to earn his first state tournament trip.

“He wants to keep developing, he wants to keep getting better,” Connell said of Kueter. “He doesn’t want to stay the same he wants to be the best kid in the state he wants to be the best kid in the nation.”

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