Iowa City's Ben Kueter finishes high school wrestling career undefeated
Iowa City High's Ben Kueter won his fourth straight state championship Saturday night and finished his career undefeated.
By Ryan Timmerman | Photos by Matthew Putney
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Nothing motivates Iowa City High’s Ben Kueter quite like his own imagination.
To be sure, nobody on the mat could compare.
With a 19-4 technical fall of Dubuque Hempstead senior Joseph Lewis in the 220-pound championship match at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Saturday, Kueter became the seventh wrestler in Iowa state history to go undefeated for his high school career and the 32nd all-time four-time state champion.
“You have to have a great imagination, this has been a really long process,” he said. “You think about what you’re doing it for or feel sorry for yourself, so you have to have an imagination, have fun with it and enjoy the process.”
Ben Kueter will wrestle and play football at the University of Iowa.
Needing points to end his final match just prior to the five-minute mark and move to 111-0 for his career, the 6-foot-2 future Hawkeye was aware of the moment and had what it took to end it, just as he’s had throughout his entire tenure at City High.
“I just knew I had to get one more takedown (to end it), and all the hard work just paid off.”
Although he thought about what it might feel like to win a state title for the fourth time, when the moment came, it was still beyond his expectations.
“It’s kind of surreal,” he said. “I’ve been playing it out in my head, but it’s just been crazy. It’s all been a blessing.”
Kueter burst onto the scene as a freshman, going 24-0 and upsetting the top-seeded Caleb Helgeson of Johnston by 4-3 decision in the championship round at 160.
His sophomore season was significantly cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which especially limited City High’s slate. That season, he wrestled just 11 bouts.
Over 100 of his prep victories have been bonus-point wins, and only 11 bouts have gone the full six minutes.
He has won titles at the state, national and international levels.
En route to capturing an international title at the U20 world championships, he went 7-0.
And the process of becoming one of Iowa’s greatest prep wrestlers even made him a bit of a wrestling historian as he went back through those that came before him.
“We have great college and high school wrestling here, it’s just been a blessing to be a part of it.,” Kueter said. “People start the (greatest of all-time) talk and you go back through to understand what kind of history there is. Dan Gable, Dan Knight, Jeff McGinness was at City High and one of those guys before me that went undefeated.
“It’s never been the game plan, my coaches just tell me to go out there and be the best me.If that makes me one of the greatest of all- time, it is what it is, but I’ve been more focused on what I can do to keep getting better.
But in the end, Kueter will always be his toughest critic.
“I”ll probably go back and watch that last match and see what I can do better,” he said.
