City High Senior Kueter Makes History With Fourth State Title
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
DES MOINES – Ben Kueter made history on Saturday.
And as he often did during his spectacular prep career the City High senior made it look easy.
Kueter posted a 19-4 third-period tech fall over second-ranked Joseph Lewis of Dubuque Hempstead in the Class 3A 220-pound state title match to become the seventh unbeaten four-time state champion in state history at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
“It’s unreal there is nothing like it,” Kueter said. “I wish I could relive it every day but I can’t it’s on to Sunday. The sun is going to come up tomorrow so I have to get back to work and go on to the next thing.”
With his fourth title on Saturday Kueter put his name on a list of elite Iowa prep wrestling company as the 32nd four-time champion in state history.
Kueter joins Dan Gable, Jeff Kerber, Dan Knight, Jeff McGinness, Eric Juergens and Jon Meeks as Iowa prep wrestlers to end their careers unbeaten.
He also enters the conversation as the greatest Iowa prep wrestler of all time.
“You start the GOAT talk and you really understand what kind of history we have here,” Kueter said. “You’ve got Dan Knight, TJ Sebolt, McGinness who went to City High. We have a lot of really good wrestlers so even to be mentioned with them is pretty unreal.”
Kueter concludes his prep career with a spotless 111-0 career record and titles at 160, 195 and 220 pounds.
The winner of a U-20 world championship last August, Kueter joins McGinness as the lone four-time state champions in City High history.
“To me, now he is the greatest of all time,” City High coach Cory Connell said. “Like I told him earlier before he won a world championship I can’t consider you the GOAT, Jeff McGinness won the world championship and you haven’t you haven’t even made a world team. Now winning a world championship, being a four-time undefeated state champion and doing it in as dominant fashion as he has is so special. It’s just unreal.”
Just as he was all season, and throughout his career, Kueter was dominant on Saturday.
Kueter (39-0) had three takedowns in the first period and led 17-4 after three quarters before completing the tech fall 59 seconds into the third period.
“I just went out there and wrestled my match and that’s what I wanted to do,” Kueter said. “It went three periods probably could have done it shorter but I really just wanted to put on a show for the fans. We have the greatest fans in the world here so really just putting on a show for them and making sure they enjoyed it.”
The win was the fourth of the season for Kueter over second-ranked Lewis (44-4) all by tech fall or fall.
“(Being the greatest of all time) has never been the game plan, my coaches just emphasis be the best me and if that’s the greatest of all time then I guess that is,” Kueter said. “I’m more focused on what I can do to be a better version of myself so I’ll go back and watch what I can do better in that last match and go on to the next thing.”
Kueter was one of three City High wrestlers to win titles on Saturday joining 126-pound junior Cale Seaton and 182-pound senior Gabe Arnold.
Arnold won a 2-1 decision over second-ranked Tate Naaktgeboren of Linn-Mar in a tiebreaker in the 182-pound title match.
The win was the fourth in four tries for Arnold (41-0) over Naaktgeboren.
Seaton won a 4-3 decision over Jabari Hinson of Ames at 126 pounds for his first title as City High won had multiple state champions for the first time since 2005.
With three champions and a fourth-place finish from junior Kael Kurtz at 132 pounds City High finished fifth in the team standings with 119.5 points.
It was the best team finish for City High since the Little Hawks were fourth in 2005 and the 119.5 points are the most since City High scored 127 while winning the 2002 3A title.
Class 3A State Meet
At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines
Team scores (Top 20 area teams) – 1. Waverly-Shell Rock 169; 2. Southeast Polk 153; 3. Bettendorf 149; 4. Linn-Mar 130; 5. City High 119.5; 6. Fort Dodge 110.5; 7. Johnston 104.5; 8. Waukee Northwest 103; 9. Carlisle 90.5; 10. Ankeny 89.5; 11. Bondurant-Farrar 83.5; 12. Ankeny Centennial 81.5; 13. Pleasant Valley 78; 14. North Scott 77; 15. Dubuque Hempstead 71; 16. Cedar Rapids Prairie 70; 17. Norwalk 69; 18. Ames 61; 19. West Des Moines Valley 60.5; 20. Indianola 44; 21. West High 38.5; 33. Clear Creek Amana 20; 43. Liberty High 8
Championship Matches (Area athletes only)
106 – Alexander Pierce (West High) dec. Tyler Harper (Norwalk) 10-7
126 – Cale Seaton (City High) dec. Jabari Hinson (Ames) 4-3
182 – Gabe Arnold (City High) dec. Tate Naaktgeboren (Linn-Mar) 2-1 TB-1
220 – Ben Kueter (City High) tech fall Joseph Lewis (Dubuque Hempstead) 19-4
Consolation Semifinal
132 – Kael Kurtz (City High) dec. Dalton Rowe (Bondurant-Farrar) 5-0
Third-place Match
132 – Jayce Luna (Bettendorf) dec. Kael Kurtz (City High) 5-2
Seventh-place Match
152 – Jack Lewis (Bondurant-Farrar) dec. Kyler Scranton (West High) 5-3 SV-1
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