Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Regardless of his weight class Ben Kueter has always possessed the precision and quickness often associated exclusively with smaller wrestlers.

Even after an off-season growth spurt saw Kueter grow to 6-foot-2, gain 30 pounds and jump three weight classes those wrestling attributes never disappeared.

The result is a wrestler with heavy weight strength and light weight speed.

Or, perhaps more succinctly put, a very scary opponent.

“He’s quick but he’s not the small 95 pounder either that’s the thing,” City High coach Corry Connell said of Kueter. “He’s a big 95 pounder and he’s quick, he’s fast, he’s strong, he is athletic, he’s big. He’s the total package.”

The top-ranked 195-pounder in Class 3A, Kueter put his full skill set on display Friday morning in a second-period pin of Davenport North junior Cade Sheedy.

Kueter racked up four first-quarter takedowns, had six in the match while building a 12-3 lead before putting Sheedy on his back with 22 seconds left in the second period.

“I wanted to push myself that match because I figured I was going to have good match next round and the round after,” Kueter said. “Maybe I could have had a pin earlier but I wanted to blow my lungs out and get feeling good.”

Kueter has all the tools but what stood out perhaps the most on Friday morning was the quickness.

A state champion at 160-pounds last season as a freshman, Kueter used a variety of moves from all angles to rack up six takedowns in just over three minutes against Sheedy.

“I’ve been wrestling smaller kids my whole life and they are pretty quick,” Kueter said. “I practice against some smaller kids and when I go wrestler 95-pounders they are a little bit stronger but they feel slow.”

The second-period pin was the second consecutive win by fall at the state meet for Kueter and improved his season record to a perfect 9-0.

Kueter owns a perfect 33-0 career mark entering a semifinal matchup with No. 7 Tanner Spyksma (19-4) of Waukee on Friday evening.

“My arsenal has gotten so much better,” Kueter said. “I practice at Big Game, I practice at Sebolt and I practice with Connell and they might all show the same the move but they’ll show it three different ways and so then I have three different ways to settle that one move.”

City High went 1-2 in quarterfinals with freshmen Kael Kurtz and Cale Seaton both dropping matches to top-three opponents.

Kurtz fell to third-ranked Blake Gioimo of Cedar Rapids Prairie 9-8 in tiebreaker 1 while Seaton dropped a 19-8 major decision to Nathanael Jesuroga of Southeast Polk.

Both came back to secure medals with second-round consolation wins.

Kurtz won a 15-0 tech fall over Ella Schmit of Bettendorf and Seaton won a 15-11 decision over Nate Bierma of West Des Moines Valley.

Class 3A State Wrestling Tournament

At Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines

Team scores (Top 10; area teams) – 1. Waukee 78; 2. Waverly-Shell Rock 75.5; 3. Southeast Polk 69.5; 4. Fort Dodge 48.5; 5. West High 48; 6. Bettendorf 46.5; 7. North Scott 46; 8. Ankeny 45.5; 9. Linn-Mar 40; 10. Norwalk 30.5; 13. City High 22.5; 50. Liberty High 1

Quarterfinals (Area Wrestlers)  

106 – Blake Gioimo (CR Prairie) dec. Kael Kurtz (City High) 9-8 TB-1

113 – Nathanael Jesuroga (Southeast Polk) major dec. Cale Seaton (City High) 19-8

126 – Grant O’Dell (West High) pinned Carter Fecht (Waverly-Shell Rock) 3:33

132 – Ryder Block (Waverly-Shell Rock) major dec. Kael Scranton (West High) 8-0

138 – Hunter Garvin (West High) pinned Jace Anderson (Ankeny) 4:32

152 – Graham Gambrall (West High) dec. Abass Kemokai (Linn-Mar) 6-2

170 – Ashton Barker (West High) major dec. Tristen Duncan (Norwalk) 19-11

195 – Ben Kueter (City High) pinned Cade Sheedy (Davenport North) 3:38

Second Round Consolation

106 – Kale Kurtz (City High) tech. fall Ella Schmit (Bettendorf) 15-0

113 – Cale Seaton (City High) dec. Nate Bierma (West Des Moines Valley) 15-11

120 – Lane Cowell (Fort Dodge) major dec. Parker McBride (West High) 17-6

132 – Connor Kelley (Waukee) dec. Kael Scranton (West High) 4-3

182 – Evan Surface (Western Dubuque) dec. Mason Applegate (West High) 3-1 SV-1

195 – Gabe Hemsted (Carlisle) pinned Vinny Lima (Liberty High) 1:28

Friday’s Semifinals

126 – No. 3 Grant O’Dell (14-0) Jr., West High vs. No. 8 Thurman Christensen (19-4) Sr. Waukee

138 – No. 1 Hunter Garvin (14-0) Jr., West High vs. No. 3 Carter Martinson (21-5) Jr., Southeast Polk

152 – No. 3 Graham Gambrall (10-2) Sr., West High vs. No. 1 Aiden Riggins (32-0) Jr., Waverly-Shell Rock

170 – No. 3 Ashton Barker (14-0) Sr., West High vs. No. 1 Mickey Griffith (24-1) Jr., Des Moines Lincoln

195 – No. 1 Ben Kueter (9-0) Soph., City High vs. No. 7 Tanner Spyksma (19-4) Jr. Waukee

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