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.
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Go Iowa Awesome – Ben Kueter To Focus on Wrestling at Iowa For Next 10 Months
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.
With June rapidly finishing up, that means the Iowa high school softball season is preparing to enter the stretch run of the year.
The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union State Softball Tournament will begin Monday, July 20, in Fort Dodge at Rogers Park, bringing together many of the top teams and players in the state. High School On SI Iowa currently provides a Top 25 state softball power rankings, so now, we need to see who the top players are.
Below are the nominees for the High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player of the Year in each classification. Stats listed with the player are from Bound and based on those numbers imputed as of June 26, 2026 at noon CT.
Feel free to vote as many times as you like, with voting set to close on Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. CT.
High School On SI Iowa Class 1A Softball Midseason Player Of The Year Nominees
Rachel Eglseder, Edgewood-Colesburg, Senior
Eglseder owns a 16-5 record, striking out 225 batters with a 1.66 earned run average while adding 11 extra-base hits and 40 RBI at the plate.
Rylee Mudderman, Kee, Junior
Mudderman continues to be a difficult out, batting .488 this season with two homers, 11 doubles and four triples. She has driven in 38 and scored 35 times, stealing 10 bases.
Faith Shirbroun, St. Edmond, Senior
Speaking of tough outs, Shirbroun owns a batting average of .606 this season, recording seven homers, 17 doubles and five triples. She has driven in 36 and scored 37 times, stealing 22 bases while setting several school records for hitting.
Sydney Lovrien, Clarksville, Senior
The ace for the defending state champions, Lovrien is 13-5 with 100 strikeouts in 86 innings pitched. She also has 23 hits and 21 RBI at the plate.
Sam Kruckenberg, Mason City Newman Catholic, Senior
A veteran now, Kruckenberg owns an 18-4 record with 227 strikeouts and a 1.23 earned run average. She is batting .440 with five homers, 11 doubles and 23 RBI at the plate.
About Our Midseason Player of the Year Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The Iowa chapter of the Land Improvement Contractors of America (LICA) officially opened a new facility on its 80-acre demonstration farm in Marshall County Thursday.
Iowa LICA President Scott Bohle said having classroom and meeting space will make it easier to educate the next generation of professional contractors, along with government employees, lawmakers and students, to help conserve soil and water in the state.
Bohle said the building “gives people a place to gather, collaborate and continue the important work that defines our association.”
Just outside the new space are wetlands, terraces, sediment control basins, bioreactors and other features, which members have built since LICA purchased the farm near Melbourne in 2000.
“We call it the one-stop shop, where you can see anything being put to practice by our landowners,” said Kelby Kiefer, executive director of Iowa LICA.
Together, these “edge-of-field” practices remove 50% of phosphates and almost 100% of the nitrates from the runoff of a 1,000-plus acre watershed, according to the association.
Adding more wetlands, saturated buffers and bioreactors across the state are a key part of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. It aims to cut nitrogen and phosphorus losses from farm fields by 41% and 29%, respectively.
The strategy is part of a broader effort to reduce nutrient pollution in the state’s waterways and the Gulf of Mexico by 45% compared to the 1980-96 baseline period. It does not include a target date.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state has accelerated edge-of-field practices in recent years, in part through the Batch and Build model. The approach bundles projects in a targeted watershed to reduce costs and save time for farmers and contractors.
Nearly 150 nitrate reducing wetlands and around 500 saturated buffers, bioreactors and multi-purpose oxbows had been built in the state as of 2024. Thousands more will be needed to meet the state’s nutrient reduction targets.
“[Clean water is] something we need to be focused on, and we can be proud of the work that’s happened, but we know that we need to do more,” Naig said. “Buildings like this help.”
Naig said scaling up conservation infrastructure across the state will require more skilled contractors. He described them as the “critical link” between concepts and “getting things on the ground.”
“It’s from that point where you say, ‘We have a design that’s ready to go, a willing landowner,’ but somebody needs to make it happen,” Naig said. “The land improvement contractor sits in that very important spot.”
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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