Iowa City High’s Ben Kueter TF’s Hempstead’s Joe Lewis to become
#iahswr
’s 32nd 4-time state champion. Ben finishes his career a perfect 111-0 with 74 career pins and 105 career bonus-point wins.
Special wrestler. Special athlete. Special person. One of the best we’ve ever seen.
Dan Gable is about to add a significant piece of hardware to his already-crowded trophy case.
The wrestling icon was notified this week that he will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:
Ben Kueter is a JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION.
Kueter pins Turkey's Rifat Gidak in 1:40 to win men's frestyle gold at 97 kilograms. Gidak scored a quick 2, Ben countered with his own 2, locked up a trap-armed gut, then ran a bar for the fall.
IOWA CITY STAND UP!
#WrestleSofia
#iahswr
So the Chiefs' offensive line room now includes:
Austin Blythe
-3x Iowa state champ, Junior/Cadet AA
Nick Allegretti
-Illinois state medalist, Cadet FS national finalist
Creed Humphrey
-5A state finalist in Oklahoma
Wrestling and football. Do both, you guys. Always do both.
PK’s pin over Hidlay. Misdirection single, chased to the edge, jumped for the cradle, suicide for the fall. Absolutely insane.
“If you’re scared, go to church.” –
@knarkill
Amit Elor's résumé:
– 2021 Cadet World Champ
– 2021 Junior World Champ
– 2022 Junior World Champ
– 2022 Senior World Champ
Across all four competitions, she's 14-0 with 11 TFs, 2 pins, and outscored her opponents 131-3.
She is 18 years old.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride 🇺🇸
So this year,
#Iowa
had the:
- Big Ten Women's Basketball Player of the Year, Kathleen Doyle
- Big Ten Men's Basketball Player of the Year, Luka Garza
- Big Ten Wrestler of the Year, Spencer Lee
Pretty special winter sports season in Iowa City.
Drake. Freaking. Ayala. 6-1 winner over
#5
Devin Schroder. Scoreless first, then Drake connected on a single for 2 in the second, then again for 2 more in the third. Had 3+ minutes of RT. Hell of a match.
This crowd is wound up. Welcome to the show young man. Iowa leads 3-0.
Exactly 40 years after Nate Carr wrestled Kenny Monday in the NCAA finals in OKC, David Carr will wrestle Quincy Monday in the 165-pound semifinals here in Tulsa. Pretty dope.
#Iowa
’s Spencer Lee has been named the 2020 Big Ten Wrestler of the Year.
Tom Brands has been named the Big Ten Wrestling Coach of the Year.
#B1GWrestle
David Carr went to Iowa State with unbelievable hype and expectations, and he surpassed all of it and then some.
4x All-American
3x national finalist
2x NCAA champion
What a pleasure it was to watch so much of it up close 🫡
Lilly Luft started wrestling after her brother Logan died. He donated his organs — and a young girl from Kentucky, Ember Henderson, received his heart.
On Friday, Ember was at Xtream to watch Lilly cap her all-time
#iahswr
career with a third state title:
Besides Michael Jordan's "flu game", what was another epic performance from sports history by an athlete who was competing while either sick or injured?
Per Big Ten Network: Friday's
#Iowa
-Penn State dual was the most-watched wrestling telecast in BTN history as well as the day's highest-rated college sporting event across all networks. Averaged 342,955 viewers, per Nielsen Media Research. Bigger than 2018 PSU-tOSU by 11%.
homeboy on the right nearly got hit for passivity, then went heavy hands to a pick attempt to a 4-point toss. can’t tell if he got another turn out of it. also unclear if the other dude covered for the reversal before they cleared.
man, i miss wrestling.
"There was a point where I really loved it … but I’m just not that into it anymore."
I talked to Nate Jesuroga this week — about why he didn't wrestle this past season, why he currently has no plans to wrestle moving forward, and what's next for him:
#Iowa
’s Pat Lugo gets some love on SVP’s
#SeniorNight
series.
“Iowa wrestling has a legendary past. Pat Lugo deserves to be counted among them. Florida raised, Iowa made.”
@MasterP_145
#Iowa
's Spencer Lee over Nathan Tomasello 8-2. He wins the U.S. Senior Nationals title at 57-kg. He outscored his five opponents this weekend 52-6. He is so good, you guys.
#WrestleFortWorth
Tom Brands, without context:
"You see a kitty cat walking down the street, you don’t pay it no mind. You see a grizzly bear coming your way, the hair on the back of your neck stands up … that's how life is."
Rock Ya-Sin, a two-time Georgia state wrestling champ from Southwest DeKalb, out here suplexing dudes today. Looks a little like the
@USAWrestling
logo.
Shoutout to
@TJ_Mullen
for the video.
Final
#B1GWrestle
Team Scores
1.
#Iowa
, 157.5
2. Nebraska, 132
3. Ohio State, 112
4. Penn State, 107
5. Purdue, 83
Hawkeyes put 9 on the podium, all in the top 5, and win their first Big Ten team title since 2015, and first outright since 2010.
Minneapolis is in two weeks. 🔥
Max Murin, who lives with Michael Kemerer: "I find myself watching the news and going to bed early. I've definitely lost some of my street cred since I moved in with Kemerer."
These guys are relentless with the grandpa jokes.
Southeast Polk’s Abu Sama is up to 372 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns tonight, all of which are
#iahsfb
state championship game records. Scored on runs of 65, 73, 63, 9, 1, and here, 67 yards.
Out of words, man. All-time performance.
Jaydin Eierman injury defaults from his wrestleback match against Stevan Micic and gets a strong applause from the crowd near Mat 8. He is hurting bad, man. Tears in his eyes walking into the tunnel.
Asked Spencer Lee if he plans to wrestle at the Olympic Trials in two weeks:
"We'll take it day by day and see, but that's my goal. I want to go down swinging. How's that?"
Kylie Welker, the
#1
pound-for-pound women's HS wrestler in America, has committed to the Iowa women's wrestling program.
"I wanted to be the first. This is the first Division I Power 5 program. It's history, and I think that's really cool."
#Iowa
announced plans to build a new wrestling training facility, pending approval by the Board of Regents. Fully funded entirely by gifts, located south of Carver and connected via tunnel.
Ben Kueter is headed to the JUNIOR WORLD FINALS.
Rallied from down 8-0 to beat Georgia's Luka Khutchua 17-14 in a WILD semifinal match at 97kg. Tied it 9-9 by the end of the first, led 13-10, then sealed it late.
Ben wrestles for gold tomorrow.
#WrestleSofia
#iahswr
This morning on SEC Nation:
Paul Finebaum: “For Tennessee, it’s all about Alabama. For Alabama, this is maybe third, fourth, or fifth on the list.”
Roman Harper: “Paul, you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
So, uh.. Waverly-Shell Rock qualified all 14 for the Class 3A state tournament.
All 14 made the finals, 11 champs, none had to wrestle back.
First team in
#iahswr
history to qualify all 14 💥
Iowa City High’s Ben Kueter wins GOLD at the U20 Pan-American Championships. Won his final match by FALL over Mexico’s Adrian Zapata Jacob.
Ben finishes 3-0 overall at 97kg and outscored his opponents 24-0 with two TFs and a pin. Outstanding day.
#iahswr
Austin DeSanto scores two first-period takedowns, racks up 2 minutes of RT and beats ASU's Michael McGee, 7-4, to finish third in the country at 133 pounds. He is a 3x All-American and has taken 3rd each of the last two years. Outstanding career from that dude.
DUUUUDE. Tony Cassioppi over Greg Kerkvliet 6-4 in sudden victory at 285. Kerk led 4-2 in the third and was nearing RT, then Cass reversed him on the edge with 4 seconds left to force OT, then converted a shot for 2 to win. Massive dub. Big Cass is headed to the Big Ten finals.
Jacob Warner goes from the 6-seed to the NCAA finals at 197 pounds. Tied 2-2 in the third period, Warner turns WYO's Stephen Buchanan in a tilt for 4 backs in the third and wins, 6-4, to advance to Saturday night.
Hell of a day from Jacob Warner. The finals streak lives on.
GABLE. STEVESON. OLYMPIC. CHAMP.
Gable scores 2 at the gun to beat Geno Petriashvili 10-8 for gold at 125kg. Led 4-0, trailed 8-5, then scored twice in 15 seconds to win.
49 years after Dan Gable won in Munich, Gable Dan does the same in Tokyo.
DUDE. WOW. WHAT.
#wrestling
if you guys really love breaking down brackets this much, let me introduce you to the ncaa wrestling championships this week where you can break down 10 different brackets and even have the losers come back for third place and it’s a lot of fun i promise
Happy New Year. Gabe Arnold, the No. 1-ranked 170-pounder in the country and the
#6
overall prospect in the 2023 class, has committed to the Iowa Hawkeyes:
#Iowa
's Austin DeSanto defeats Virginia Tech's Korbin Myers 10-6 to finish 3rd at 133 pounds.
ADS went 5-1 this week. In his five wins, three by bonus, he outscored his opponents 65-20. He was tremendous this weekend.
After Doug Schwab’s post-dual presser, he passed Kevin Dresser on the way out of the media room.
Dresser: “Hey, good match today.”
Schwab: “Don’t give me that Dresser. Don’t give me that good match.”
Dresser: “Well, OK-match, then.”
Small amount of tension, but also funny.
Miguel Estrada, from Frontier HS in CA, flips from Wisconsin to Iowa. 3x California state champ, currently ranked
#2
at 145lbs nationally, and is considered the
#28
overall prospect in the 2024 class by MatScouts. Projects at 149/157. Nice get for the Hawks here.
YOOOOO. Marcus Coleman knocks off
#1
Aaron Brooks 9-7 at 184 pounds. Marcus took AB feet-to-back for 2 + 4 in the second. Bonkers sequence. Survived a flurry from AB in the third to win it.
Some coaches proposed the idea of recognizing
#NCAAWrestling
's top 8 seeds at each weight as All-Americans.
#Iowa
's Spencer Lee: "I'm not a fan of it. It's not in our nature to accept freebies … if they announce me as national champ, I wouldn't accept it. I didn't earn it."
We are back. Spencer Lee pins Reece Witcraft in 51 seconds.
Spencer finishes 26-0 all-time at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. From the 46-second pin over Rayvon Foley in 2018 to today's dub, it has been a genuine pleasure to get to watch and cover that dude.
Iowa leads 21-0.
At 149:
#Iowa
’s Pat Lugo over Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso 2-1. That first-period takedown held up as the winner. Sasso nearly won it at the end, but no 2.
Lugo wins his first Big Ten title, and in doing so, the Hawkeyes have clinched the
#B1GWrestle
team title outright.
WOW. Ryder Downey over Robert Avila Jr. 6-5 in TB1 to win 145 in Class 3A. Robbie led 5-0 in the third period, then Ryder turned him twice to tie it for OT. Scoreless SV, Ryder escapes, then rides out Robbie to win it.
Unbelievable. Ryder Downey, state champ.
#iahswr
Here is a list:
– Jaydin Eierman
– David Carr
– Austin O'Connor
– Jake Wentzel
– Nino Bonaccorsi
All NCAA finalists last year. All lost on Day One this week.
This tournament is HARD.
#NCAAWrestling
Calling any NCAA finalist a “fluke” is just flat out disrespectful.
If you want to have a conversation about Jacob Warner and his wrestling style and how it compares to his peers, fine. Do that.
But there are no fluke NCAA finalists. That tournament is too f—ing hard.
Jacob Warner was a fluke NCAA finalist. He is a competitor and I’ll give him that, but he won’t be top 4 on the podium this year. Potentially could not AA.
Just got off the phone with Cody Chittum. He has indeed flipped his commitment to the Iowa wrestling program.
Absolutely massive get for the Hawkeyes. Full story on the way.
For the first time since 2005, Iowa, Iowa St., and Northern Iowa all have wrestlers in the
#NCAAWrestling
finals.
In 2005:
–Iowa had 2 finalists
–Iowa St.'s Nate Gallick
–UNI's Sean Stender
Tonight:
–Iowa's Real Woods
–Iowa St.'s David Carr
–UNI's Parker Keckeisen
Pretty cool!
Ben Kueter will wrestle for his fourth state title tomorrow night after another pin, in 1:53, in the 3A-220 semifinals. That’s three pins in a combined 2:19 this week.
He’s a freak, but we knew that. 110-0 with one to go.
#iahswr
This is the story of Michael Kemerer's recruitment — a visit gone wrong, a 700-mile drive by Tom Brands, and how it led to
#Iowa
wrestling’s best lineup in a decade.
"Who knows what would’ve happened if I would’ve tried to talk him into it on the phone."