IOWA CITY, Iowa– The Hawkeye linebacker room is going to be a little thinner for the upcoming football season, but Iowa wrestling gets a bit more exciting. On Monday evening, Iowa’s Ben Kueter announced that he would be taking his talents to Hawkeye wrestling full-time after winning his age-group National Titles over this past weekend.
“First off, I would like to thank Coach (Seth) Wallace and Coach Ferentz for letting me live out a dream of mine. Coach Wallace is the reason I chose to play football at Iowa,” Kueter wrote on social media. “Secondly, I would like to thank my football brothers for making this last year so enjoyable. I’ve made bonds with those guys that will last a lifetime. With that being said, I would like too announce that I will be transitioning to just wrestling for the next 10 months in order to win a World Title, NCAA Title and a NCAA Team Title.”
“To meet those goals will require my full attention for the next 10 months, but this is not the end of my football career. I will start back up in spring ball. Thank you to the best fans in the world and Go Hawks!”
Kueter won the 125 kg division winning five straight matches to make the world team. Kueter defeated Jimmy Mullen of the South East Regional Training Center and Virginia Tech in the best-of-three finals. Kueter won 5-4 and 5-3 against Mullen.
The Iowa City native has always been a highly-sought after recruit in both sports. 247Sports ranked Kueter as a four-star football recruit and was among the best athletes in his recruiting class.
“One might assume that Keuter doesn’t have time to do anything else besides wrestling, football and school work with that type of resume, but that’s actually far from the case. The four-sport star at Iowa City was part of a distance medley relay squad that took second at the Drake Relays this (past) spring. He also played outfield for a Little Hawk baseball team that was one win away from playing for a state title. The 6-foot-3 Keuter gave a verbal pledge to in-state Hawkeyes back in September of 2021 and has stuck by his word.”- 247Sports’ Andrew Ivins after ranking Kueter No. 8 on the “Freaks List”
Kueter’s combination of size, speed and athletic upside make him a prime candidate to potentially replace one of the three linebackers after this season. For the past couple of years, Iowa fans have debated if Kueter should stick to one sport or do his best to balance both. Iowa’s linebacker room should be well taken care of this season, but will be a prime storyline come next spring.
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