City High Freshman Standout Kueter Caps Unbeaten Season With State Title
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – Name what you want in a wrestler.
Strength, speed, agility? Poise, power, precision? Effort, endurance, attitude?
Ben Kueter put all of those traits on display Saturday night in an exilerating, back-and-forth win over Tate Naaktgeboren of Linn-Mar in the Class 3A 160-pound state title match at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
Ready for the he most impressive thing about Kueter? He is just a freshman.
“He finds a way to win,” City High coach Cory Connell said. “Winners win and he won but I know he is going to want to keep getting better. He’s going to keep developing and man what a stud to find a way to win in a situation like that.”
Kueter (24-0) became the first freshman champ at City High since Kyle Anson in 2002 when he scored a go-ahead takedown with 26 left.
The win was the second in as many meetings with fellow freshman standout Naaktgeboren.
“I’d love to wrestling him more, he brought a dog fight and that’s why I go out there,” Kueter said. “I don’t go out there because I want it easy, I want to fight every match and that’s what he brought so props to him for that.”
Kueter didn’t allow a takedown to Naaktgeboren in a 5-3 win in the first prep match between the two in the finals of the Mississippi Valley Conference meet earlier this month.
Naaktgeboren changed that quickly in the rematch, taking down Kueter with 39 seconds left in the opening period.
It was just the second takedown allowed by Kueter this season.
“I wish it didn’t happen obviously but I didn’t let it fluster me,” Kueter said. “I just said 'alright I’m going to score the next point' and that’s what I did.”
Kueter got even with a second-period reversal but trailed 3-2 with under 30 seconds left following an escape by Naaktgeboren to start the third period.
Naaktgeboren shot for the match-clinching takedown and Kueter countered.
A scramble ensued and Kueter end up on top for the go-ahead takedown.
“The thing about him is he can win in so many different ways,” Connell said. “He wrestles from every position. He’s a good wrestle no matter what position you put him in so when they started scrambling I had confidence in him that he was going to find a way to come out on top.”
The entertaining 160-pound final could prove to be just the start for both Kueter and Naaktgeboren who are both among the brightest young wrestling stars in the state.
“That kid is a good wrestler, he’s a good kid,” Connell said of Naaktgeboren. “That was two good kids, two good freshman and the next three years I don’t know what weights they will go but they are going to be winning a lot of matches both of them.”
The state championship capped an unbeaten debut season for Kueter that got off to a late start after a leg injury sustained during football season.
In his first trip to the state meet second-ranked Kueter earned wins over the sixth, fourth and number one ranked wrestlers.
“It was amazing, I loved it but it’s what I expected so I’m not going to freak out about it,” Kueter said. “People say AAU and this are the same thing but it’s a totally different atmosphere. There is nothing else like it.”
Class 3A State Meet
At Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines
Team scores (Top 10; area teams) – 1. Waverly-Shell Rock 181; 2. Southeast Polk 141; 3. Fort Dodge 122.5; 4. West High 99.5; 5. Linn-Mar 92; 6. Bettendorf 81; 7. Ankeny 78; 8. Johnston 66.5; 9. Waukee 57.5; 10. West Des Moines Valley 55; 16. City High 39
Championship Round (Area Wrestlers Only)
160 – Ben Kueter (City High) dec. Tate Naaktgeboren (Linn-Mar) 4-3
Consolation Semifinal
113 – Trever Anderson (Ankeny) dec. Ethan Wood-Finley (City High) 2-1
Fifth-place Match
113 – Jace Rhodes (Mason City) major dec. Ethan Wood-Finley (City High) 9-1
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