Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports  

IOWA CITY – After capping a strong freshman campaign with five wins and a third-place finish at the Class 3A state meet last season Cale Seaton picked up right where he left off on Thursday.

At least that is the way it looked as second-ranked Seaton opened the season with a win via fall in the season-opening dual for City High.

“It felt really good to get back out and get my first match,” Seaton said. “Nothing felt different.”

In reality plenty is different for the City High sophomore since last March.

Between a third-place finish at the state meet that capped a 16-2 freshman season and Thursday’s second-period pin of Kane Shimp of Cedar Falls Seaton underwent major knee surgery and a three-month rehabilitation process that tested him every bit as much as any opponent during his debut season.

The result of a challenging sixth-month offseason is a bigger, better, stronger, healthier and more motivated Seaton entering the 2021-2022 season.

“It was hard, it was a challenge but I think it was good for me,” Seaton said of the offseason knee surgery that shelved him for three months. “You look at the sport from a different angle and you see different perspectives, you watch it and you really learn and it grows your mental toughness for sure.”

Shortly after his third-place finish at the 3A state meet last February Seaton injured his knee at the state freestyle tournament.

He had surgery a few weeks later and spent three months barred from a wrestling matt.

The time away was tough for Seaton who continued to improve throughout his freshman season.

“He was really bummed out because he was going up when he got hurt and I just told him let’s not stop that,” City High coach Cory Connell said. “He focused on the things he could control and did the things he could do and I am so proud of that kid.”

Sitting around wasn’t an option for Seaton so at the urging of Connell he made a list of things he could focus on during his time away from wrestling.

Seaton settled largely on two things, fine tuning his nutrition and pullups.

Just as he does when he is on the wrestling mat Seaton went all-in on both of those things during his rehab.

“You have to find ways to compete with yourself when you can’t compete with anybody else,” Seaton said. “That kept me fresh through it all.”

He revamped his diet in an attempt to better control his weight during the season switching in healthier foods and he did pullups.

Lots and lots of pullups.

By the end of his three months that he wasn’t allowed to wrestle Seaton was doing 500 pullups a day.

“He did everything he could through that time to make himself as good as he could,” Connell said. “I told him at the beginning make a list of the things you can do and do all those things and he is a very self-motivated kid. He works his tail off.”

All that work paid off on Thursday as Seaton was as sharp as ever in his return to the mat.

He had three first-period takedowns before pinning Shimp 68 seconds into the second period.

“Not being able to compete really got to me,” Seaton said. “As a competitive person and sitting on the side and watching just kills you so it was good to be back out there.”

Seaton was one of four Little Hawks to earn wins on Thursday as City High lost its opener to Cedar Falls 55-21 while forfeiting at six weights.

Top-ranked and two-time defending state champion Ben Kueter posted a second-period pin of Drew Campbell at 220 pounds and sixth-ranked Kael Kurtz pinned Brayden Wiles in 1:43 at 126 pounds.

Junior Ryan Ott won the match of the night at 145 with a 6-2 decision over No. 11 Connor McCartan.

“I was so proud of Ryan,” Connell said. “He was one of the most consistent guys in the offseason and he has worked really hard. He was really fired up to get that match and hopefully that just gets him on a roll for the season.”

Cedar Falls 55, City High 21

106 – Evan Simpson (CF) dec. Kendall Kurtz 8-1

113 – Carter Fadiga (CF) won by forfeit

120 – Cale Seaton (ICH) pinned Kane Shimp 3:18

126 – Kael Kurtz (ICH) pinned Brayden Wiles 1:43

132 – Carson Cross (CF) pinned Zach Fern :35

138 – Henry Koehn (CF) major dec. Jake Mitchell 15-5

145 – Ryan Ott (ICH) dec. Connor McCartan 6-2

152 – Dylan Whitt (CF) won by forfeit

160 – Gerald Norton (CF) won by forfeit

170 – Kyle Campbell (CF) won by forfeit

182 – Ian Bohnenkamp (CF) won by forfeit

195 – Drew Campbell (CF) won by forfeit

220 – Ben Kueter (ICH) pinned Drew Campbell 2:54

285 – Will Doyle (CF) pinned Avery Goodrich 2:43

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