Ben Kueter, a star local athlete in multiple sports at Iowa City West, was a major get when he committed to Iowa. A four-star football recruit and one of the top prospects in the state, Kueter was an even more elite wrestling prospect, where he was one of the top recruits in the entire nation. (Kueter was also a standout baseball player and track athlete as a prep.) He came to Iowa with ambitious plans: to play football for Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa football team and wrestle for Tom Brands and the Hawkeye wrestling team.

As of today, though, Kueter’s attention will be on just one sport, as he announced plans to focus on wrestling for the next 10 months.

This decision comes on the heels of a very successful weekend for Kueter in wrestling, as he claimed a U20 national championship at the U20 World Team Trials in Geneva, Ohio. Kueter went 5-0 in the 125 kg division to claim a freestyle national championship — and a spot on the United State team that will compete at the U20 World Championships in Spain this fall.

Kueter’s performance began with a 3-0 showing in the challenge tournament, as he recorded a 10-0 technical fall win over Duke’s Connor Barket, before picking up an 8-7 win over Oregon State’s Aden Attao and an 11-2 win over Michigan commit Nicholas Sahakian. In the best-of-3 finals, Kueter beat Virginia Tech athlete Jimmy Mullen (himself a two-sport athlete in football and wrestling with the Hokies) in two straight matches, 5-4 and 5-3.

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Qualifying for the U20 World Championship was a tremendous accomplishment for Kueter — but it also introduced a new complication to his plans to compete in football and wrestling at Iowa. The U20 World Championships are set to take place in Spain from September 2-8 this year. Those dates overlap with one Iowa football game (9/7 against Iowa State) and come just a few days after another (the 8/31 season opener against Illinois State).

Not only would Kueter miss both of those football games, but his ability to take part in Iowa football’s fall training camp in August would also be compromised by the need to train for wrestling and prepare for the U20 World Championships. Kueter’s goal at Iowa has been to balance both football and wrestling, but that only works if the schedules aren’t in conflict with one another; when they are, then a choice has to be made.

This time, Kueter’s choice is wrestling. As he said in his announcement, he wants to focus on wrestling for the next 10 months “in order to win a World title, NCAA title, and a NCAA team title.” The World title opportunity will come a the U20 World Championships, while the NCAA title — and NCAA team title — chances will come in Philadelphia next March.

Still, Kueter also emphasized that he isn’t shutting the door on football, either. “This is not the end of my football career,” he said. “I will start back up in spring ball [in 2025].”

This is a decision that does seem to make the most sense for Kueter this season — for wrestling and for football. The chance to win an age-level world championship is obviously a tremendous opportunity and it’s sensible for Kueter to maximize his chance to win that title.

Focusing exclusively on wrestling for the next 10 months should also put him in the best position to succeed in a black and gold singlet this winter, too. Kueter joined the wrestling team after the football season last year and went 3-1 in very limited action while preserving his redshirt. Kueter’s lone loss was a 9-1 major decision defeat against eventual national champion Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State.

Getting a full training camp ahead of the 2024-25 college wrestling season and being able to compete with the Hawkeyes on the mat for the entire season will give him a much better chance to excel on the mat at the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments next winter. It will also provide an excellent opportunity to assess where Kueter stands with the other top college heavyweights.

Not competing in football in 2024 also makes a fair bit of sense for Kueter, particularly given the logjam on the depth chart. Iowa returns all three starting linebackers from last year — Jay Higgins, Nick Jackson, and Kyler Fisher. The next men in on the depth chart — Jaden Harrell, Jaxon Rexroth, and Karson Sharar — are all players with multiple years in the program as well. Earning playing time at linebacker this fall looked like a very difficult proposition for Kueter.

Next spring is guaranteed to be a time of transition at linebacker for Iowa’s defense — Higgins, Jackson, and Fisher will have exhausted their eligibility, so there will be a need for new faces in the linebacker unit. The competition for playing time will still be fierce — Harrell, Rexroth, and Sharar could all be back, and Kueter will also need to compete against the trio of notable LB prospects in Iowa’s incoming freshmen class (Cam Buffington, Preston Ries, and Derek Weisskopf) — but there should be greater opportunities for playing time with Higgins, Jackson, and Fisher gone.

That said, the long-term picture for Kueter’s ability to do both football and wrestling at Iowa is still unclear. The U20 World Championships won’t overlap with future football seasons, but the ability to balance both football and wrestling — and try to be elite at both — will still be very difficult. But that’s also a problem to sort out in the future, for the next 10 months, Ben Kueter is all in on wrestling at Iowa, which is an exciting development for Kueter and the Iowa wrestling team.