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Iowa wrestling’s Ben Kueter takes U20 World silver, goes 3-1 in Spain

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Iowa wrestling’s Ben Kueter takes U20 World silver, goes 3-1 in Spain

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Make it two World medals for Iowa City High alum and current Iowa Hawkeye Ben Kueter.

The two-sport star earned a silver medal in the heavyweight field in Pontevedra, Spain, going 3-1 and outscoring his opponents 26-7. This is Kueter’s second World medal in two tries, having won gold in 2022, also at the U20 level.

Kueter opened his run on Saturday with a 7-0 win over Kazakhstan’s Alikhan Kussainov. While shots were limited, Kueter executed his attacks and countered well, controlling the match from start to finish. He followed that with a pin in 29 seconds against Stsiapan Mandryk (Individual Neutral Athlete) by quite literally shoving Mandryk down for a two-point takedown and running the armbar for the fall. His semifinal against Mongolia’s Nambardagva Batbayar could only be described as a wild scramble that referees struggled with, but Kueter ended up on top in a 13-3 technical fall.

He hit a brick wall Sunday against Iran’s Amirreza Masoumi, a four-time age-group World champion. Kueter conceded a point via the passivity clock first, followed by a push-out point to trial 2-0 at the end of the first period. After Masoumi scored a takedown with a underhook throw, Kueter added a takedown before the end of the match, but it was too little too late for the Hawkeye wrestler.

Masoumi is as talented as they come at this level, and his size was a factor here. Kueter was in on a couple of single-leg shots, but the Iranian put down his heavy hips to stall out the action. While Kueter’s offense was on full display in Spain, it was in the final match where you saw how talented, bigger heavyweights could be a thorn in Kueter’s side at the moment.

Going into the 2024-25 NCAA season, Kueter is the de-facto starter at heavyweight for the Hawkeyes. He is not participating in football this season, focusing on wrestling for the first time in his career after being a multi-sport star with the Little Hawks.

“I’m having the most fun I’ve had in wrestling in a while,” Kueter told USAWrestling after Day 1 at U20s.

In Flowrestling’s preseason rankings, Kueter is slotted at No. 11 at heavyweight, with Penn State’s Greg Kervliet, Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson and Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida headlining the class. Even youngsters such as Ohio State’s Nick Feldman are ranked ahead of Kueter.

However, Kueter turning his attention fully to wrestling opens up the possibility for a dominant redshirt freshman campaign, particularly when he’s already beating some of the world’s best in freestyle.

“I can feel my wrestling over the past couple of months, and it’s honestly exciting just seeing how good I’m getting, where I’m going with my wrestling and how much more I have to go,” Kueter told USAWrestling after Day 1 at U20s. “Even though I’m competing at Worlds, I still have so much more I can do to get better.”

Kueter and Iowa teammate Otto Black picked up medals at the U20 World Championships, with Black taking silver in Greco-Roman. On the women’s side, Iowa’s Naomi Simon earned bronze.

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him atEmckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

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