Meet the All-Iowa wrestling award-winners for the 2022-23 Iowa high school season
The Des Moines Register is honored to announce its 2023 All-Iowa wresting award winners for the 2022-23 high school season.
This year's selections include a Girl and Boy Wrestler of the Year as well as a Girls and Boys Coach of the Year. The selections were made based on in-season results, Register staff observations, and consultations with wrestling contacts.
2023 All-Iowa Girl Wrestler of the Year: Lilly Luft, Charles City
Lilly Luft is as much of an inspiration off the mat as she is a lights-out competitor on the mat.
Luft, a Charles City senior, is our All-Iowa Girl Wrestler of the Year. She finished 40-0 this year and won a state title at 130 pounds. She caps her sensational four-year prep career as a three-time state champ, four-time state medalist, and with a 125-6 overall record. Her 125 wins are, currently, the most in state history by an Iowa girl.
More:Introducing the 2023 All-Iowa high school girls wrestling team
Of Luft's 40 wins this season, she recorded 28 pins. She pinned her way to a regional title, then scored two more falls and three consecutive major decision victories en route to an individual state championship. In all, she outscored her five state-tournament opponents by a combined 31-1.
It was a tremendous cap to what's become an all-time high-school career for an Iowa girl. In addition to her in-state success, Luft is a 16U freestyle All-American, a place-winner at the U17 world team trials, a Super 32 finalist, and she also took fourth at the Cadet beach wrestling world championships in 2021. She is ranked No. 5 nationally at 132 pounds by USA Wrestling and has signed to wrestle for the Iowa women's program next year.
Off the mat, Luft has been an inspirational champion for girls and women's wrestling. She has long been a vocal advocate for the sport, which helped lead to the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union officially adding girls wrestling. She helped build Charles City's girls program this season, which fielded a roster of 14 girls this season.
Luft first started wrestling as a way to honor her late brother, Logan, a talented youth wrestler who died in an ATV accident in 2017. Logan donated his organs, and his heart went to a young girl named Ember Henderson. Last month, Ember sat with the Luft family at Xtream Arena as Lilly won her third state title.
“He was my drive to start,” Luft said of her brother in February, then quickly added: “But I think a lot of my goals and aspirations in this sport have changed a lot. I’m just so grateful for the opportunity. All glory be to God because He’s given me this amazing ability, and I could not be more grateful for that.”
2023 All-Iowa Boy Wrestler of the Year: Ben Kueter, Iowa City High
This was perhaps the easiest decision in the history of the All-Iowa Wrestling awards.
Ben Kueter, Iowa City High's talented four-sport athlete, is our All-Iowa Boy Wrestler of the Year. He went 39-0 at 220 pounds and won his fourth Class 3A state title. He is Iowa's 32nd four-timer. Kueter also finished his career with a perfect 111-0 record, making him the seventh wrestler in state history to finish his career without a loss.
More:Introducing the 2023 All-Iowa high school boys wrestling team
Kueter is an otherworldly athlete — an All-American football player, a talented outfielder in baseball, and a stellar Drake Relays-level track athlete. But we're here to talk exclusively about his wrestling career, which has been its own masterful experience.
As a freshman, Kueter won state at 160 pounds, a rare feat at the time and even more impressive when you consider that he did it after recovering from a broken leg suffered during his first football season, which caused him to miss the first month of his first wrestling season. As a sophomore, he jumped to 195 and won again.
Over the last two seasons, Kueter has been one of the most dominant wrestlers Iowa's ever seen. He's compiled a 76-0 record with 54 pins and 13 technical falls. Of his 111 career wins, he's scored bonus points in 105 of them, including 75 pins.
Outside of Iowa, Kueter ascended to become the No. 1-ranked pound-for-pound wrestler in the country, per MatScouts. Last summer, he won a Junior freestyle world title, joining an elite group of wrestlers to become Junior world champions before their senior years of high school:
Kyle Snyder in 2013
Aaron Pico in 2014
Spencer Lee in both 2015 and 2016
Gable Steveson in 2017
Aaron Brooks in 2018
Pretty elite company. Consider: Snyder won three NCAA titles. Lee won three is attempting to win a fourth this month. Steveson won two NCAA titles and is an Olympic gold medalist. Brooks is a two-time NCAA champion attempt to win a third this month. Pico made the Olympic Trials finals and is now a professional fighter.
Ben Kueter may very well be one of the greatest Iowa high school athletes we've ever seen. He may be the most talented wrestler to ever come out of the state of Iowa. He has signed to both play football and wrestle collegiately for the Hawkeyes, where his legend may grow even more.
"My coaches always emphasize to be the best me," Kueter said last month, after winning his fourth title. "If that's the greatest of all time, then I guess it is. I'm just focused on what I can do to be a better me. I'll probably go back and watch and see what I can do better, then move forward to the next thing.
"The sun is coming up tomorrow, right? So we've got to get back to work and move on to the next thing."
2023 All-Iowa Girls Wrestling Coach of the Year: Ali Gerbracht, Cedar Falls
Ali Gerbracht has one of the leading spots in the Iowa girls and women's wrestling history books.
Back in 2019, Gerbracht was the first state champion crowned at the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association state tournament, winning at 106 pounds. She later became the second known Iowa girl to win 100 career matches during her four-year career at AGWSR.
In February, Gerbracht was named the 2023 girls wrestling coach of the year by the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association. Now, she can add another honor to her trophy case, as the 2023 All-Iowa Girls Wrestling Coach of the Year.
Now 21, Gerbracht's efforts helped Cedar Falls become a potent girls program this season. She had 38 girls on her roster this season, including 25 that were either freshmen or sophomores. Cedar Falls had just 19 total girl wrestlers during the 2021-22 season.
The Tigers ultimately won team titles at the Battle of Waterloo, the Northwest Invite at Waukee Northwest, the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament, qualified nine wrestlers for the first IGHSAU state tournament, where they finished 11th with two medalists.
It should be no surprise that Gerbracht is a successful coach. She was a successful athlete, for one, but she learned from her father, Chad, the longtime AGWSR boys wrestling coach. Now she's leading her own program — and helping push the state of Iowa forward when it comes to girls and women's wrestling, too.
2023 All-Iowa Boys Wrestling Coach of the Year: Gabriel Boorn, Wilton
It appears Wilton wrestling is in the midst of a small resurgence under head coach Gabriel Boorn.
Last month, Wilton took second at the Class 1A state championships and second at the Class 1A state duals tournament. The Beavers hadn't finished in the top-four of the 1A traditional team race since taking third in 2015, and hadn't reached the state duals finals since 1994.
Here they are now, back battling for Iowa's small-class supremacy. Don Bosco won a historic 5-peat in Class 1A in February, but Wilton finished second with 139 points and eight state medalists. As such, Boorn is our 2023 All-Iowa Boys Wrestling Coach of the Year.
The exciting part is Wilton isn't going anywhere. Next year, the Beavers are expected to return five medalists and seven total qualifiers from this year's runner-up squad, which adds up to 93 returning state team points from this year's 139. That's the most of any Class 1A school — more than Don Bosco, which returns 90 team points.
Even more, of the seven returning qualifiers, six are either freshmen or sophomores. Three of them medaled this season, led by freshman state finalist Mason Shirk. It all adds up to a strong young core for Boorn to build around for the next few seasons.
Wilton has only ever won two traditional state wrestling team title all-time, in 1997 and 2002. The Beavers also won a state duals crown in 1993. With Boorn at the helm and a young-but-talented squad in the room, count Wilton among Iowa's small-class elite programs for the next few years.
Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Meet the 2023 All-Iowa wrestling award-winning wrestlers and coaches
