Wrestling Mailbag: Final state tournament thoughts, Ben Kueter, Iowa's lineup, Casey Swiderski

Here are some stream-of-consciousness thoughts regarding the four-day state tournament from last week, which is something many of you asked different questions about for today's mailbag:

I didn't mind the four-day format. It made for a long week, sure, but for my purposes, the schedule made it easier to cover. Each class went once a day. When Class 1A was done each day, I could put those notes away and focus on Class 2A, then Class 3A. I liked that. The multiple-classes-per-session in the old schedule made that tricky.

Nobody was eliminated on Wednesday. For those with first-round matches, if you went 0-1 or 1-1, you were in the same spot in the bracket entering Thursday, which was kind of weird. But when Thursday ended, half the field was eliminated, leaving only the semifinals and the bloodround for Friday. I liked that build up. Also, the new format eliminates the lose-in-the-quarters-then-wrestle-a-bloodround-match-an-hour-later scenario.

If you had a first-round bye, and you kept winning, you wrestled once a day. Maybe a little strange, but honestly, I think that made the entire product better. Guys (and gal) were more fresh and ready to wrestle all week. The semifinal rounds on Friday were bonkers. Plus, for a guy like Cale Seaton, who wrestled through a shredded knee, wrestling once per day helped him out tremendously. (His surgery on Monday went well, by the way.)

Also, if nobody is eliminated during that first day, that means, one, every kid has to make weight twice, and two, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, whoever else all had to buy tickets for Wednesday and Thursday. Let's not pretend the Iowa High School Athletic Association wasn't excited about the extra money coming in.

Speaking of money, let's give FloWrestling credit. They unveiled monthly plans, $30 per month, that targeted those wanting to watch state championships this month and next. Grandma and grandpa in far-away, small-town Iowa shouldn't have to pay $150 for one week. But $30? Great idea. Hope they keep that moving forward.

Anyways, the 24-qualifiers-per-weight thing wasn't all that bad. There were some district tournaments last year that had more quality wrestlers than state-qualifying spots available. I'll always err on the side that the best guys need to be at the state tournament every year. Makes the end product that much better.

Not sure the IHSAA will go back to 16 qualifiers per weight. You don't make something bigger and then shrink it. Could eventually see them going to full 32-person brackets at some point. The first-round byes looked funny in the state brackets, but I did like them as a reward for the top eight seeds.

It's a great idea to host both the boys and girls state championships together, and the thought of having four finals mats on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena is a fun one, but I like that they were on separate weekends. The Iowa girls deserve their own stage.

Next year, the weights change, per the National Federation of State High School Associations. State associations had the option of 12, 13, or 14 weights. The IHSAA chose to stay at 14, but some of the weights will look different. They are as follows: 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, 285.

I think that's it. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts as these conversations continue over the next few weeks. But last week was also a reminder that the state wrestling championships is the biggest party the state of Iowa throws every year, and I might be biased but it's not particularly close.

OK, onto the Wrestling Mailbag, back again after taking last week off and a day later than normal because of the state wrestling championships. Guess that's also an odd result from a four-day state tournament that starts on Wednesday.

Please give me a follow on Twitter and I’ll keep you up to date on all things wrestling in Iowa. Don't forget to tune into the Register's wrestling podcast, In the Room, each week. You can find the latest episodes below.

Thanks for your help here, and for reading.

Thoughts on Ben Kueter's high school career and college future.

Had a few different questions about Ben Kueter. Will try to answer most of them here — starting with Jay.

It is my understanding that football will come first, mostly because they are covering the scholarship but also because they go first in the calendar. Kueter will go through football's meat-grinder schedule first, then whenever they're done — whether that's December or January — he'll transition to wrestling.

It stands to reason that when wrestling ends, he'll go back to football for the spring workouts/practices (or whatever remains of them by that point in the year). Kueter is a high-level freestyle wrestler, obviously, but spring football will throw a wrench into his freestyle calendar.

Those thoughts are based on conversations I've had with him and with coaches. We do know he'll wrestle heavyweight, but he'll probably compete around 240-250 pounds — which is probably the mode when looking at Division I heavyweights. I know he wants to play linebacker, but he could be a great fit at either defensive line or tight end, too. I imagine his first year with the football program will go a long ways in deciding his position.

Past that, I'm not sure anybody truly knows what this is going to look like, not even Kueter himself. I know I've said that before, but until we see it, it's just hard to picture it, you know? That explains why you guys have so many questions about it, but I am imploring you to just sit back and enjoy the ride, no matter how it turns out.

Ben Kueter will either be an All-American football player, at any of those positions, a world-class heavyweight wrestler, or both. Nobody loses in any of those scenarios.

BEN KUETER:Iowa City High senior finishes undefeated career as Iowa's 32nd 4-time state champ

Who could be Iowa's next four-time state wrestling champion?

Here's the list that I have:

• Juniors who have won 3 titles — Waukee Northwest's Carter Freeman and Columbus Catholic's Max Magayna.

• Sophomores who have won 2 titles — Union's Jace Hedeman.

• Freshmen who have won 1 title — Iowa City West's Alex Pierce, Bettendorf's Jake Knight, Osage's Blake Fox, and Fort Dodge's Dreshaun Ross.

We're seeing more four-timers more frequently — there were just 17 four-time champs in the first 82 years of the IHSAA state wrestling championships; there's now been 15 in the last 14 years — but it's still an incredibly hard feat to accomplish.

We'll see how many of these guys can get all the way through, but the same rule applies here that I mentioned earlier with Kueter — that is, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Emptying The Notebook:21 more things we learned from Iowa high school state wrestling tournament

How many state champs wrestled other state champs this season?

This took a little bit of research! Which means … a list!

Here's what I came up with, in weight order:

• Greene County's Kale Petersen beat Underwood's Gable Porter 7-6 at Atlantic's Rollin Dyer Invitational

• Porter then beat Waukee Northwest's Carter Freeman 4-3 at Urbandale's Ed Winger Invitational

• Waverly-Shell Rock's Ryder Block was supposed to wrestle Greene County's McKinley Robbins at the Ed Winger, but Robbins medically-forfeited from that finals match

• Robbins did beat Underwood's Blake Allen twice — 3-1 at the Rollin Dyer, then 3-1 at the Winger

• Osage's Tucker Stangel beat Waverly-Shell Rock's Bas Diaz 4-3 at the Battle of Waterloo

• Logan-Magnolia's Wyatt Reisz beat Red Oak's Dawson Bond 4-2 in a December quad-dual

• Columbus Catholic's Max Magayna beat Osage's Nick Fox 8-1 at the Battle of Waterloo

• Fox also beat Pleasant Valley's Caden McDermott 11-3 at Independence's Cliff Keen Invitational

• Iowa City High's Gabe Arnold beat Columbus Catholic's Carson Hartz 15-6 at the Battle of Waterloo

  • Arnold also beat Notre Dame-Burlington's CJ Walrath 3-1 at the Elite 8 Duals in September

• Fort Dodge's Dreshaun Ross beat Ballard's Gabe Christensen 7-2 at Ames' Jack Mendenhall Invitational

• City High's Ben Kueter pinned Columbus Catholic's Mason Knipp at the Battle of Waterloo

• Dike-New Hartford's Nick Reinicke beat Knipp twice — 5-1 in a January tri-dual, then by fall at a rescheduled NICL tournament

A few thoughts reading through this list:

First, if this isn't an advertisement to start attending or to pay closer attention to tournaments like the Battle of Waterloo and Urbandale's Ed Winger Classic, I'm not sure what is.

Second, shoutout to Columbus Catholic for putting together a schedule that tests their guys. Shouldn't be a surprise they were one of four schools to end up with three individual state champs this year.

Third, while Class 3A may dominate the Iowa high school wrestling space (we'll discuss this more in the next question), this is a reminder that talent exists across all three classes.

Class 3A:Iowa City High wrestlers shine in 3A state wrestling finals

Favorite matches from the 2023 Iowa state wrestling championships.

Favorite match, by far, was Gabe Arnold vs. Tate Naaktgeboren. Gabe won 2-1 in the tiebreaker rideouts, and went 4-0 against Naaktgeboren this season, but every match got closer: Gabe won 8-3 in December, 3-1 in a January dual, 3-2 in the tiebreaker rideouts at the conference tournament, then 2-1 in the state finals.

I loved that match because the official let the athletes decide it. There were moments during the match where both guys probably could've been called for fleeing the mat, but I was happy the ref didn't call it either time. There were times when both guys were 'thisclose' to scoring takedowns in regulation and sudden victory, but they somehow defended well enough to avoid giving up two.

It was as high-level as high-level gets in high school wrestling, and, like Gabe and Tate both said afterward, the fans were the real winners on Saturday night. Gabe may have swept the season series, but both of these guys proved they are among the state's elite wrestlers both because of their performances in those matchups but also because they wrestled each other so many times.

It would've been very easy to avoid each other after the first result and wait solely for a state finals rematch, but they both put it on the line and competed at every opportunity — which is a lesson for everybody else around the state to consider for themselves. Don't protect things. Go wrestle. What would either one have learned or gained by avoiding the other throughout the year? You can learn so much by competing against the best.

Someone also asked about them continuing this rivalry in college. Not sure that's in the cards, at least not right away. Gabe is planning on going 174 while Tate is planning on 184. Maybe in future years, we'll see Gabe bump up or Tate slim down and they'll go at it again, but probably not immediately. We'll see what happens.

Also: Tate finished with a 136-9 career record, per Trackwrestling, and 6 of those losses came to Gabe (four times this year) and Kueter (twice his freshman year). Think that does a pretty good job of encapsulating his stellar career, which includes four state finals appearances and two titles.

Anyways, the second part of Jaxson's question: If Iowa went to one class, how many individual champs would come from Class 3A? I would argue most of them. How many is "most of them" is a hard question to answer.

Based on results this year, we can say Ryder Block (138), Gabe Arnold (182), Dreshaun Ross (195), Ben Kueter (220) are, without question, the best guys at their weight — although I'd like to see a fully healthy McCrae Hagarty wrestle Ross again.

There are weights where 2A and 1A guys are clearly the guys to beat. Max Magayna, with his win over Fox, is probably the best guy at 170 this season. Kale Petersen, with his win over Gable Porter, is the best guy at 132 — though he's lost to Carter Freeman in freestyle and I would've liked to have seen that folkstyle matchup.

But that's ultimately where this conversation leads, to hypothetical matchups.

Koufax Christensen, for my money, was the best 120-pounder in the state this year, but Brandon Paez has long been an underrated hammer out of Iowa's small class and Blake Fox is an ice-cold competitor. I would love to see a three-man round-robin between those three.

Same can be said for 126, where Cale Seaton is maybe the toughest dude at this weight, but Derrick Bass had a similar journey with his shoulder and Garret Rinken is a Junior Greco-Roman All-American. Assuming all guys are healthy, what would a three-man series between those guys look like? I have no idea, but I'd pay to watch it.

We can keep going in circles like this at virtually every weight — at 106, 152, 285, on and on. I'm a big fan of Wyatt Reisz, but can he handle Danny Diaz's athleticism? Tucker Stangel beat Bas Diaz earlier this year, but how would he fare against Mikey Baker? Sign me up for a Jake Knight-Jace Hedeman matchup, too.

Class 2A:West Delaware's Cam Geuther goes from winless in middle school to state champ

More impressive wrestlers from the 2023 state wrestling championships.

So many impressive wrestlers from state. Here's a list of non-champs that stood out, just off the top:

• Norwalk's Tyler Harper, who in his first trip to the state tournament stuck the 1-seed in the 3A semifinals on Friday night after being pinned by that same guy four different times this season.

• Waverly-Shell Rock's Ryker Graff, who looked as good as I've ever seen him last week en route to a fourth-place finish in arguably one of the deepest weights in the tournament.

• North Scott's A.J. Petersen, who is headed to play football at Iowa State but, kind of quietly, wrapped up his career as a three-time state medalist for the Lancers and I can't help but think that he'd be a fantastic college wrestler.

• Carroll's Dreylen Schweitzer, a senior who won three wrestleback matches by a combined five points to earn a state medal in his final high school season.

• Notre Dame-Burlington's Kaiden Dietzenbach, who lost his first match on Wednesday — he was the 1-seed — and came all the way back through the wrestlebacks to finish third.

• Independence's Carter Straw, who wrestled 145 all year but bumped up to 160 pounds the week of districts, qualified for state, then reached the semifinals. Pretty cool.

• Roland-Story's Hesston Johnson, who scored double-digit points in three of his six matches last week and finished fourth as a 14-seed.

• Mount Vernon's Clark Younggreen, who wrestled without an ACL or MCL and through a torn PCL to help the Mustangs finish third in the 2A team race. They don't win a trophy last week without his fourth-place finish and 16 team points.

• Dike-New Hartford's Wil Textor, who won three matches by a combined four points to reach the state finals as a senior.

• Sigourney-Keota's Reanah Utterback, who became the second Iowa girl ever, and maybe the last, to medal at the boys state wrestling tournament, and how can you not be impressed by that?

• Midland's Caden Ballou, who went from not placing at state as a sophomore, not even qualifying as a junior, then reaching the state finals as the 15-seed last week.

I could keep going. There were just so many cool stories that emerged at the state tournament. It's part of what makes that particular week so amazing.

Class 1A:Don Bosco, Reanah Utterback, others make history at Class 1A state wrestling

Real Woods, Nelson Brands, and the 2023-24 Iowa wrestling lineup.

Loaded question, which is basically asking for a way-too-early projection of the 2024 NCAA team race. Let's go one-by-one here:

I'd need to ask about specifics regarding covid years, remaining eligibility, and available redshirts — I do know that Abe Assad still has his regular redshirt available, and that Nate Jesuroga, Ben Kueter, and Tony Cassioppi could all take an Olympic redshirt next year by virtue of being age-level world medalists — but Real Woods and Nelson Brands are both planning to be at Iowa next season. At least I haven't heard anything different.

So far as I know, Iowa is only losing three guys from their current starting lineup:

• Spencer Lee

• Max Murin

• Jacob Warner

That's it. Everybody else is coming back.

Now, be real here, that's a lot of experience leaving due to expiration of eligibility. Spencer, of course, is a three-time champ, Warner is a three-time All-American, and Murin has had the look of an All-American in recent years but hasn't broken through the bloodround barrier yet. That much experience leaving matters.

Their replacements are, mostly, already known, barring something unforeseen. Drake Ayala should step in at 125 after Spencer, Kolby Franklin should step in at 197 after Warner, and I'll give Caleb Rathjen the nod for now to step in at 149 after Murin. Rathjen may see competition with Cody Chittum and others, but he's the front-runner.

So Iowa's lineup, for the most part, is in pretty good shape for next season, but I wouldn't say Iowa has an inside track to the team title — at least not yet, for a few reasons.

First, need to see how Iowa performs at this year's national tournament. We know who the hammers are — Spencer, Woods, Warner, Cass — but can guys like Patrick Kennedy and Abe Assad, who look like All-American-caliber guys this year, score big points? Can Murin get over the bloodround hump? Brody Teske, Cobe Siebrecht, and Nelson Brands all look like darkhorse candidates. If they all get through, that raises Iowa's floor.

Their performance at this year's NCAA tournament will better inform us of what the Hawkeyes will bring back and how that compares to other teams nationally — and, really, that's only part of this equation.

Second, Penn State isn't really graduating much. They lose Roman Bravo-Young and Max Dean, both NCAA champs, but everybody else returns — led by NCAA champs Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks, All-American Greg Kerkvliet, and others. They'll presumably add Robbie Howard back to the lineup, too, either as the 125 starter or as the RBY replacement at 133. They're probably the way-too-early 2024 favorites, as of this writing.

Now, could things change? Absolutely. The Hawkeyes could ball out and outperform expectations. Maybe the Nittany Lions underperform. Maybe another team, like Ohio State or Missouri or NC State or Arizona State or whoever else wrestles their way into the conversation. Guys could get hurt or transfer. Next year is an Olympic year, and guys all over the country are eligible for Olympic redshirts. That'll impact what next year looks like, too.

It's hard to say exactly what next year will look like when there's so much still going on this year. I know it's natural for fans, especially wrestling fans, to look ahead, but we'll cross that bridge later.

Hawkeyes:Spencer Lee finishes 26-0 at Carver, Iowa wrestling trounces OK State 28-7

Will Iowa State's Casey Swiderski use his redshirt in 2023-24?

I have no insider knowledge on this particular subject and haven't really asked about it this season, but I don't hate the idea of Casey Swiderski utilizing his redshirt next year.

Swiderski is not going to be a 141-pounder forever. He's got the frame, I think, to grow all the way into 157 or even 165, and it makes a lot of sense to start that process this offseason.

For starters, Iowa State has capable guys that can step into 141 next year, whether that's Zach Redding bumping up from 133, or either Evan or Jacob Frost, two guys who have acclimated well to Division I wrestling, stepping in at that weight, too. Kevin Dresser has options he likes behind Swiderski.

Secondly, since Paniro Johnson is likely a career 149-pounder, it makes sense for Swiderski to jump two, even three weights. Jason Kraisser has two years left after this year (he redshirted his initial year at Iowa State, in 2021-22) and David Carr has one year remaining after this year. If Swiderski redshirts next year, he could make the jump all the way to 165 and fill in after Carr leaves, or Kraisser could bump to 165 and Swiderski could go 157.

Thirdly, Swiderski has dealt with injuries this year, so taking a redshirt year not only allows him to get big, but to heal and recover, too. The Division I wrestling season is hard. It's why coaches often want kids to redshirt that initial year so they can ease into that lifestyle. Swiderski went right away, and while he was more ready than most true freshman, nothing can truly prepare you for everything a full Division I season throws at you.

These are all just thoughts that are in my head. Who knows what'll actually happen. Dresser is a planner. He creates plans for virtually every scenario, whether they happen or not. It's why he gets paid the big bucks. I'm sure he's thought about when Swiderski might use his redshirt. It may be next season. It may also not be.

We'll see what happens. As with most things, you guys will know when I know.

From October:Meet Casey Swiderski, a true freshman who’ll start for Iowa State wrestling this season

This week, I'm grateful for Kiara Djoumessi, a state champion wrestler for Waverly-Shell Rock who sings and knits hats and pins virtually all of her opponents. Kiara found me at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Sunday during Iowa's 28-7 win over Oklahoma State and gave me a hat she knitted.

Kiara a special human who happens to be one heck of a wrestler — and also a very talented maker of hats, bags, and airpod cases, all of which she sells on her Etsy page. Support her work here.

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: Wrestling Mailbag: Final state tourney thoughts, Ben Kueter, Hawkeyes