Ben Kueter will stay busy when he heads to the University of Iowa
IOWA CITY, Iowa (BVM) — Ben Kueter has done a good job of keeping himself busy.
“I’m always doing something,” Kueter said.
The junior at Iowa City High School has a sport for every season of the year. Football in the fall, wrestling in the winter, track in the spring and baseball in the fall.
“It’s the competitive side of everything that keeps me going,” Kueter said. “I love competing and it’s just a blast to do that year round.”
Kueter doesn’t just compete, he excels in every sport he plays. This past spring he was a part of a distance medley team that took second at the Drake Relays. Then in the summer he helped the Little Hawks to a 29-14 record as centerfielder. His .333 batting average was fourth best on the team and he had 26 RBIs to go along with it.
However, what he is best known for is his wrestling and football abilities. Kueter has been wrestling since he was 4 and is currently the fourth-ranked wrestler in the nation at 220 pounds by Flowrestling. He is also considered one of the top football recruits in the Class of 2023.
“I was getting a lot of looks for wrestling,” Kueter said.
Colleges had to pay attention. Since entering high school, Kueter has yet to lose a match and has two state championships. This spring he also added a junior folkstyle national title to his resume. The offers have come pouring in: Iowa, Oklahoma State, Princeton, North Carolina and Northern Iowa all have recruited Kueter to wrestle in their programs.
“It’s always been the plan,” Kueter said about wrestling in college, not just because he loved it, but because that is where the college interest was coming from.
This fall that all changed when his high school football coach, Mitchell Moore, said that Kueter should expect to get some college offers this season.
His sophomore season he had played well, but due to COVID, he didn’t play as many games as he normally would, meaning less film and less opportunities to be seen by recruiters. This season with things back to normal and Kueter having another year under his belt, he was primed for a breakout season.
Moore was right, the linebacker and tight end for Iowa City leads the team in total tackles and is second in the state at the Class 5A level with 67.5. He also leads the state in tackles for loss with 29. On offense, he has 13 receptions for 240 yards and four touchdowns as well as one rushing touchdown, but defense is what he loves the most.
“I definitely think defense is where I enjoy football the most,” Kueter said.
And that is what colleges began noticing. On Aug. 29, he received his first Power Five scholarship offer from the University of Minnesota and shortly after he got two more from Iowa State and Missouri. Finally on Sep. 19, he got the one he had been waiting for, and while on an unofficial visit to Iowa, he received an offer to become a Hawkeye.
“It’s a fun culture and environment to be surrounded by,” Kueter said.
Growing in Iowa and being in Iowa City, Kueter has been a lifelong Hawkeye fan and now he has two different offers to continue his athletic career at his dream school. Normally this would mean choosing which sport to continue with in college, but not for Kueter.
“I couldn’t really see myself giving up one or the other… so I figured why not do both at one of the best programs in the country,” Kueter said.
Kueter will move on to the next level and cut down his sports participation by two, but he will be both wrestling and playing football when he steps on to campus in two years. Until then, he has an undefeated wrestling streak to continue as well as a football season to finish.
