Iowa

Go Iowa Awesome – Ben Kueter To Focus on Wrestling at Iowa For Next 10 Months

Published

2 years ago

June 4, 2024

Go Iowa Awesome – Ben Kueter To Focus on Wrestling at Iowa For Next 10 Months

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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The Calendar Crunch

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].”

The Wrestling Impact

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.

The Football Impact

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.

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Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

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Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

Published

14 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Man sentenced for killing 4 people appeals his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Luke Truesdell’s attorney has filed as of Sunday to appeal his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Truesdell was sentenced last week to three consecutive life sentences plus 50 years for the deaths of four people killed in rural Linn County.

A jury convicted Luke Truesdell, 36, in November on the first-degree murder of Brent Brown, 34; his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids; and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton. They also found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids.

His attorneys previously argued multiple reasons for a retrial that could potentially be brought up again.

They said that one juror was overheard talking about news on the case.

They also said the prosecutors inflamed the jury, rather than focusing on the facts.

His lawyers said there is no direct evidence that Truesdell committed the murders.

Truesdell’s defense also pointed to Truesdell’s father, Larry Tuesdell, who was found covered in blood at the scene but never fully investigated. Authorities have not been able to locate Larry.

The state disagreed, citing overwhelming evidence including DNA on the murder weapon, eyewitness testimony and video of Truesdell entering the garage where the four people were found dead.

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Iowa

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

2026 Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament brackets, schedule

The Iowa high school boys state basketball tournament is just around the corner and the full field has now been set.

By March 13, four teams will be crowned state champions and there are plenty of worthy squads vying for the title. On Tuesday, the final brackets were released and we now have a clear picture of the eight teams in each class hoping to take home the trophy.

Here’s a look at the first-round pairings and the full state tournament schedule for next week’s IHSAA action.