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Who Is The GOAT IA High School Wrestler: The Case For Everyone With Even a Far-Fetched Case

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Jan 1, 2020
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NOTE: This is not an article that is crowning CJ the GOAT. This is the first article in what will be many to come in which I state the case that guys may have for being the GOAT. There may end up being 100 of these, for an argument can likely be made for that many. Some arguments better than others, but an argument at least. Plenty of guys have had their eye-opening moments. Heck there are a couple of 1xers who have pulled off feats that were out of this world. Dan Davila from Underwood in 2002 may have been the best ever 103 lber I have ever seen…and that’s the only title he won. Plenty of examples like that… and you’ll read all of them.

I get hung up quite a bit on the “Who Is The GOAT Iowa HS Wrestler” topic every time I merely see it referenced. I have gone back and forth with my own opinion and just can’t seem to settle in. I have come to the conclusion that this is a question that has no right or wrong answer and you can make a case for MANY guys who have gone through. And with this series, I plan on doing just that. I plan on starting with the 4 timers and 3 timers and eventually just writing about anyone who has a case, regardless of how much of a stretch it is.

The most common GOAT’s on RTW are Jeff McGinness, Eric Juergens, Mark Schwab, TJ Sebolt and Dave Kjeldgaard. Each of these guys have strong arguments to be made on their behalf. Heck, Juergens and McGinness never lost a match in HS. But something that is more intriguing to me is who hasn’t been mentioned… one of these that sticks out to me is CJ Ettelson from Hudson. I understand that there wasn’t much grey area with him…people either loved him or hated him and I always felt that he was misunderstood. He was animated and this was often perceived as “cocky.” However, if you meet the guy, he goes out of his way to be friendly…in my experience anyways. I can’t help, but wonder if he hasn’t been mentioned yet because of potential misperceptions affecting their recollections of him… For CJ most certainly has a case for being among the greatest ever.

  • CJ won 4 state titles. He didn’t lose a match in Folkstyle after his freshman year.
  • CJ was the first to win 4 titles starting out as a Freshman at a weight heavier than 103.
  • In 2 of the years that CJ won state, he dominated defending state champs. As a Freshman, he majored Senior returning state champ and SEI legend, Joe Honts. This was an incredibly impressive win for anyone, let alone a Freshman. His Senior year, he dominated returning state champion, Kyle Burkle from North Linn in the finals. The other two years, he dominated both Brady Dolan from Indee who made it to the finals twice and who knows what he would have done if he had a Senior season. And in the finals match that tested him the most, he defeated lat drop king, Chad Hutchinson from Mepo by 4-5 points. He had a scare in that match, but fought through it and won… shows how he responded to adversity.
  • Other notable wins: he defeated Christopher Johnson by a large margin. Chris won a few world/national titles in HS and wrestled for the Hawkeyes. He was legit. He also defeated 2X state champion and future D3 national champion, Jacob Naig in a close match.
  • What was notable about CJ was the large margins of victory that he’d have over top-tier competition. His style was like nothing that had ever really been seen at that time or duplicated since… it was just his own and it was foreign to some guys. Sure, there were guys he struggled with more so than others, but he could tech guys out who beat the guys who gave him a 1 point match. There’s really been nothing like him. He had his own style that he perfected via years of trial and error and some guys didn’t know how to make sense of it and it showed.
  • CJ Ettelson, love him or hate him, is one of the most dominant and unique HS wrestlers in IA HS history. His finals matches in his Freshman, Sophomore and Senior seasons…no one has been on top of their games better than CJ was in those. Just listen to the commentary in CJ vs. Burkle.
  • He had a respectable college career.
  • Part 2 coming soon.
 
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THE CASE FOR JOHN MEEKS

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Out of the RTW articles I’ve posted so far, no one has mentioned John Meeks as the potential GOAT. This is totally beyond me, for this guy’s HS career was battle-tested and unscathed… 4 titles, 0 career losses. And he had wins vs. guys like Brandon Sorensen, Dakota Bauer, Jordan Rinken, Adam Perrin, Conner Ryan, etc. So why is he so routinely forgotten? I assume it is because he didn’t have the college career that Cory Clark had for the Hawkeyes. Cory Clark was the other 4xer in Meeks’s class and there was a considerable amount of debate as to who was the better recruit. It was inevitable that those two were going to be compared. Clark was a National Champ. Meeks was an average college competitor for the Cyclones. This should not be held against Meeks in the HS GOAT debate. There are so many life changes and factors that can affect how a guy’s college career unravels. The line is so thin when it comes to the determination as to whether a guy pans out in college or not. Eric Juergens, who is one of the most common GOAT mentions, almost quit in college due to the various stressors that accumulated for him and the only reason he didn’t was because he stumbled upon Tom Brands by chance in the elevator the night he was set on calling it quits. Brands talked him into sticking it out… Juergens went on to win two NCAA titles. Would he be considered the GOAT by so many if he hadn’t had that encounter with Brands? Not likely. No one knows why Meeks did not accomplish all he had set to accomplish in college and it’s not even relevant, for it has no effect on the FACT that he is one of the greatest HS wrestlers to ever step on the mat in Iowa. Clark’s college career has nothing to do with John Meeks. You know who had some nice things to say about John Meeks? Jeff McGinness did on Tony Hager’s podcast, Hager’s Happy Hour comment section. They are doing a great job with that, check it out on Facebook. Anyways, they were all discussing their top 100 of the last 10 years list and McGinness subtly went to bat for Meeks, saying something along the lines of Meeks’s college career not being a deciding factor and pointing out that the kid never lost and did defeat Brandon Sorensen, a 4X state champion himself and a NCAA finalist and 4X AA for the Hawkeyes. Who is McGinness? He’s the man who has the most votes for being the GOAT. He knows a thing or two about the HS to college transition. I also think he knows a thing or two about which HS guys may be better than others. He seems to like Meeks.

No one had a more unblemished, respectable career than John Meeks. Period. His legacy needs to carry on a bit. He was great.

And people need to consider the influence that his life mentor/coach, Al Garrison and coach Willie Gadson has on John Meeks’s life... also factor in that they both passed away around the same time which happened to be around the beginning years of Meeks’s college career and it may shed some light on why Meeks may have lost a little bit of bounce in his step at Iowa State.
 
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THE CASE FOR MARK SCHWAB

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Mark Schwab… 4X state champion from one of the most recognizable and consistently rowdy squads, Osage… What would Iowa HS be without Osage? Not the same, I can tell you that. For one, I can’t imagine the tournament without seeing several man-children dressed in green singlets taking the mat with hopeless, frightened inferiors shaking in their little ASICS across from them. My God they’ve had some tough dudes.

Is Mark Schwab the GOAT? Well, my whole life I grew up hearing from several credible sources who adamantly claimed he was, but that’s all I had on him… other (credible) people’s accounts. It wasn’t until this past year where I finally saw footage of him wrestling in HS. It was when he won his 4th title vs. Dan Sinnott from Albia, who was a helluva warrior himself. Put it this way… I have no idea how anyone could ever formulate a game plan to beat Mark Schwab. He is about as close to the perfect balance of skills that I could have ever imagined. His positioning… he was able to maintain perfect positioning for every single little millisecond that he was on the mat. I can’t imagine being able to do it as good as him. And he was disciplined… this likely led to his perfect positioning. And he was aggressive and obviously confident… he had absolutely no weaknesses and I have no idea how he ever lost in HS. I heard he did lose once… I can’t remember who to, but I am guessing it was against Chuck Norris on steroids…and I assume Mark had to try real hard to lose. It’s probably the most exhausting and difficult mission he ever went on.

I have never seen a more complete HS wrestler than Mark Schwab anywhere, ever. He had it all. I can’t even make sense of what it would be like to be that impressive of a human being. Ever read one of his essays? The man’s train of thought and logic is even perfect. I am not a jealous or envious person by nature, but I wish I could be Mark Schwab for just one day. And if I had that chance, I would spend the time in that day wisely. I would start my day by flying around in the sky and from there, I would soar through the world in search of a grizzly bear that may be stupid enough to try to fight me… and I would kick that grizzly bear’s ass… and then I’d help him up and tell him what he could do to improve his fighting skills. Because that’s what Mark Schwab is capable of doing.

Yeah, Mark Schwab has a strong case. If someone were to say, “yada yada is better,” my response would be, “oh yeah? How is that possible?” And then I would set up an intervention to help them lay off the crack pipe.

I have been trying to think of something in this world that I may have a shot at beating Mark Schwab in and after hours of brainstorming, the only thing I could think of is that I would probably place higher than him in a Miss America Pageant.

 
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THE CASE FOR BOB STEENLAGE

By Kevin Swafford Mepo ‘77

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Thirty-six years after the IHSAA sanctioned the state tournament, Bob Steenlage muscled his way to becoming Iowa’s first four-time state champion. I love events in history that break barriers. They’re special, like man’s first space walk in orbit, or man’s first steps on the moon. They are events that are extraordinary, that appear transcendent as moments of destiny where you stop what you’re doing to watch what’s taking place and take notice. That’s the esteemed place of honor that Bob Steenlage holds in Iowa wrestling history!

It’s been almost 60 years since Steenlage won his 4 titles and his alma mater high school, Britt won consecutive state titles in 1961-1962, but the legendary achievement of becoming the first will always remain and belong to him. It’s an astounding feat that would not be repeated for 17 long years. It would become the road map for those who came after him that persevered and held onto their dreams of becoming a 4 time state champion in wrestling, and aspired to push those boundaries ever further.

Bob Steenlage has an amazing history and life story that fully told would be better left for a “Remember the Wrestler” article to do him justice, but since we are dealing with the subject of GOAT in IA HS wrestling I will try to limit most of my comments and facts to his high school career and push for his consideration as such.

So is Bob Steenlage of Britt the GOAT?

By simple name recognition by the average wrestling fan… probably not. But if you asked knowledgeable wrestling fans you may get another answer. Steenlage has a lot more name recognition than you may think, and of course his accomplishments in Iowa wrestling history are in a class among the wrestling elites, as a very select few of this group are – he’s not just a member of the 4 timer list of Iowa state champions. He’s the very first one in that elite group. That carries the weight and level of respect in this sport much like that of the pioneer astronauts of the NASA space program in their race and quest to conquer space. Part of what makes Steenlage relevant even today is that he’s a decorated Vietnam veteran, has a published biography and is a public speaker, and that he’s still out there telling his compelling story and still promoting the sport of wrestling to those who are willing to hear. His wrestling credentials for GOAT and his claim dates back to 1959.

Here’s the case for Bob Steenlage as GOAT…

Bob Steenlage completed his HS career with a record of 74-7-5 in route to his pinnacle achievement of winning 4 consecutive state titles. He would be the first to admit that he was not the most talented wrestler ever to don the mats at the state tournament, but recognized that his lack of natural or gifted ability did not have to be a hindrance in achieving greatness. Probably the greatest attributes or assets that he possessed as a competitor were his raw determination and an unshakable belief and confidence in himself, and his mental toughness. He had immeasurable TRUE GRIT!

And while his career record is not nearly as impressive by today’s standards, there is a reason that the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum selected Bob Steenlage to represent the award presented to the top high school senior wrestler in the state of Iowa.

Kind of a unique factoid regarding this first 4-time event in Iowa HS wrestling history is that as a senior, Steenlage won his finals match on a referee’s decision by “riding time” (3-2). We’ll get to the details of that in a moment, but first, let’s talk about context and then take a quick look at each state title in order.

At that time in Iowa wrestling history, the participating state wrestling schools were divided into just 2 classes – larger schools class A and the rest of the wrestling schools in class B. Growing up in an agricultural state, Iowa has long been recognized for its work ethic and it provided rich opportunities for anyone willing to put their hard work and efforts to good use. I’m old enough to remember those days of hot summers baling hay, stacking and unstacking, then putting the bales away in the barns. Bales weighing between 70lbs to 100lbs depending on moisture content and how tight the bales were set and loading those hay racks 7 rows high. That’s the work life that Bob Steenlage knew and came out of, and it didn’t matter that he was on the light end of the wrestling weight classes as everyone was expected to carry their own weight in that era of late 1950’s early 1960’s. Small in weight class or not, Steenlage was nasty as a roll of barbed wire and just as strong.

As for the individual state titles that he won:

State Title #1

Steenlage won the first of his 4 straight championship titles in the 1959 Class B 95lbs finals where he defeated Ron Jones of Iowa Falls 2-1, who went on to wrestle in college at Iowa State University and was 2x AA at 130 placing 5th in 1963 and 4th in 1965, and was part of Coach Harold Nichols’s first NCAA National Championship team. Ron along with his brother Don (also an Iowa State alum and IA state champ at 133lbs in 1961) later coached for their alma mater for 15 years – Ron winning the Iowa prep 2A COY award in 1983. So the kid that Steenlage beat in the finals as a freshman was a pretty good quality wrestler, good enough that Dr. Harold Nichols chased both he and his brother down at a roofing job personally to recruit them for his Iowa State wrestling program.



State Title #2

As a sophomore, Steenlage bumped up a weight to 103lbs, and advanced through the state tournament rounds going on to win the 1960 Class B state championship and capturing his 2nd straight title, beating Rich Leichtman of New Hampton by a score of 4-0. The runner up, Leichtman would go on to win a state title of his own the next year at 112lbs in 1962, continuing his wrestling career at Iowa State – placing 3rd in the Big 8 Tourney in 1966 at 123lbs, then placed 5th at the NCAA Nationals at 123 (unseeded) behind none other than our GOAT profile wrestler Bob Steenlage (seeded 4th) who placed 3rdthat year for Army (West Point Military Academy). In that 1966 NCCA Nationals tournament, both wrestlers were defeated by eventual 3x national champion Mike Caruso from Lehigh (Leichtman losing to Caruso in the 2nd round 3-2; and Bob Steenlage losing to Caruso in a close 4-2 semifinals match). Steenlage defeated Leichtman in the wrestle backs by a score of 4-2 to advance to the 3rd place medal match where he defeated Warren Crow of SUNY-Albany 7-3 to capture 3rd place.

Leichtman’s school – New Hampton was a state powerhouse during that era from 1957-1963 which included 12 individual state titles and 3 team titles in 1957, 1959, and 1963. So again, the kid that Steenlage beat was a great kid, a future state champ and went on to have a good career at the college level.

A background note – Lehigh’s Mike Caruso went on to be inducted into the National Collegiate Wrestling HOF in 1991 and finished with a career record of 57-1 and had a streak of 50 consecutive wins. His only loss came by the hands of none other than Bob Steenlage in a 7-2 match – Not Too Shabby!

More trivia – Steenlage also defeated Mike Johnson of Pitt in the finals of the Easterns in 1965. Mike Johnson was the first wrestler in the U.S. to win four straight wrestling titles in high school. Steenlage was the second ever to accomplish this feat one year later. Who would’ve seen that cawinkydinkhappening in their crystal ball?



State Title #3

Steenlage capped off his junior season in 1961 by seizing his 3rd state championship title at 112lbs by defeating Dan Sullivan of Corning in another close match 2-0. I’ve been working on trying to find out more information on Dan Sullivan but have been unsuccessful at this point researching back through 60 years on any of his wrestling achievements… but the point here is that Sullivan was a state runner up. It’s still not necessarily a reason to discount double-check a state title if you’re measuring GOAT attributes based on competition level… Oh, by the way, I’ve heard from family members that winning one state title is NOT that easy, let alone your third! One thing’s for sure, you wrestle whoever makes it to the finals and Steenlage beat the best that took the mat against him that year at state.
 
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BOB STEENLAGE CONTINUED...



State Title #4

As mentioned previously, Steenlage won his 4thstraight state title in 1962 at the 120lbs weight class in exciting fashion by defeating Steve Balsbaugh of Perry, a previous state qualifier who got knocked out of the tournament in the opening round the year before by Steenlage’s teammate and a 2x state champ himself – Larry Loyd.

The 4-T clinching finals match ended in the third period tied 2-2, but back in those days one of the tie-breaker criteria used to determine winners in a tie match was by a clock that logged the riding time advantage between wrestlers, similar to how college score tables track riding time today. This ultimately provided Steenlage with a criteria advantage and when the referee returned from the scorer’s table after about a 2 minute meeting, he raised the right arm of Bob Steenlage for the win, causing the crowd to erupt with excitement, thus crowning him as the “First 4 time State Champion” in Iowa wrestling history. The criteria time difference was by 1 second, as Steenlage had racked up a 61 seconds of riding time advantage. A point was given to a wrestler if they had more than a minute riding time over their opponent. The official score in the books would go down as 3-2 with the difference determined by “riding time”…

While that score doesn’t seem indicative of a dominating performance that would provide ammunition for considering Bob Steenlage as the GOAT in Iowa HS wrestling, maybe we should consider some facts regarding his senior year campaign…

Much of this information is chronicled in the documentary “Wrestling with Iowa”, which includes footage of an interview of Bob Steenlage, who is now 76 years old, discussing his quest for 4 state titles and in particular his senior year.

During his senior year he faced and overcame some major hurdles, which began when his HS wrestling coach Kent Townley left before the season started. Steenlage has been candid about that event being devastating to him at the time – “He was like a father to me. It was devastating when he left because he was my workout partner, my mentor, and my teacher.”

Britt had brought in a new wrestling coach named Jim Craig, a former NCAA champion at Iowa in 1959. On the surface this all seemed to be a plus, but as it happened, during some drills where Steenlage and his new coach were working on takedowns, Steenlage injured his back. The pain was severe enough that it forced him to see a local doctor, who after x-rays, told Steenlage that he would never wrestle again! To paraphrase, the words of Lt. Aldo Rey – “That was news he could NOT abide!”

He didn’t accept that diagnosis so he sought help through a chiropractor across the street, who worked on him and helped him manage the pain while he worked at getting back on the mat. The injury left him unable to wrestle for weeks and was a nagging reminder throughout that season as it took much longer to recover than expected, with the pain preventing him from working out until 10 days before the district tournament started. Throughout this ordeal Steenlage’s confidence never wavered though – “I knew I could win because of 3 things… my mental outlook, the strong grip I had and the physical shape I was in!”

That belief and confidence carried Steenlage all the way to the state semifinals match against his fiercest rival and competitor – Ron Barker of Osage, who Steenlage recalls as being “built like an ox” and that match was refereed by none other than Dr. Harold Nichols – yes the legendary Dr. Harold Nichols… Steenlage’s only loss his senior year was to Barker during a regular season dual. The semi-finals match was highly competitive with Steenlage coming out on top by a score of 7-5, but that victory came at a high cost as he separated his right shoulder during the match, the seriousness or severity of which was not known till after the tournament was over!

“I knew I had to wrestle with one arm,” Steenlage said about preparing for that final match of his prep career. He persevered, while having no grip in right hand or much strength in his right arm throughout that finals match against Steve Balsbaugh of Perry. Miraculously, he was able to wrestle his opponent to a 2-2 draw when the referee’s whistle blew ending that match. And with the 1 point awarded by the scorer’s table for the just over a minute advantage in riding time, the wrestling gladiator Bob Steenlage became an Iowa wrestling legend and the first Four-Time wrestling state champion in Iowa history!

Like many that are reading this, we’re either not old enough to remember this historic event or weren’t even born yet… maybe for decades. But the truth is in the details.

Everything that I’ve read about it and even interviews of those involved or that did see this, portray it like a true life Rocky movie with a fairy tale ending, including the hero – a bruised and battered gladiator character like Rocky calling out “Yo Adrian, I DID IT!” atmosphere to it. Only in this case he won it for his coach and his teammates and the entire wrestling world (Iowa) that was watching!

So much interest and thought is spent discussing won-loss records, match ups, and wrestling era’s and trying to compare one against the other, but I think there is so much more to this sport than numbers when evaluating worth and excellence, plus there’s no statistic that measures a wrestlers desire, heart, and guts when competition is concerned. In the horse racing and breeding industry they can measure differences in heart size in relation to performance… (did I mention I love horses in one of my previous articles? well I digress) but the sports folks can’t quantify or measure will and the desire to win. We only see a partial measure based on results. Those are attributes required by those that achieve at the highest levels of competition.

We try to quantify individual attributes and contributions via statistics, which don’t get me wrong – they matter, especially today where colleges are using wrestling metrics to make training decisions and how analytics can be used to predict potential, reveal weaknesses, opportunities to improve, develop workout and training strategies and plans to streamline individual workouts as well as for improving team strengths and addressing team weakness. But like all data analytics, it’s only as good as the input data used in producing results. So where am I going with all this? Well I feel like it’s hard to give an elite and outstanding candidate like Bob Steelage a fair shake because I’ve never seen him wrestle or seen video of him wrestle to make any disqualifying decisions or impressions regarding his style… The only style I see in newspaper print and books that I’ve been fortunate enough to read and learn about him. And his style is he hates to lose and he’s a winner! There’s very little data available on older era athletes to make valid comparisons or draw realistic conclusions regarding older era wrestlers.

How does that help in evaluating who the GOAT is in Iowa HS wrestling? Did I help move the needle at all or did I just muddy the water? Regardless, there’s a great deal of uniqueness and level of excellence in the HS career of Bob Steenlage that all fans and competitors should value, recognize, and appreciate.

Winning four consecutive state high school titles was and still is a Mount Everest achievement in wrestling, and Steenlage is the Edmund Hillary figure in Iowa wrestling that conquered that summit! The fact that others have followed and made that climb to that same summit peak overlooking the vast wrestling horizons doesn’t diminish that great achievement in the least, and in my opinion, enhances it – just as it does for those others that have achieved that pinnacle moment in their histories!

Bob Steenlage is probably not the GOAT in Iowa HS wrestling if what you are measuring by is based on won loss record and points scored vs points allowed, or even quality of opponents. But I’d still put him up against anyone pound for pound at his relative age and weight class, given access to the same advantages of modern wrestling facilities, and training. He won 4 state titles at 4 different weight classes. Just like all the other 4 timers, he was a winner and a steely cold competitor that didn’t seem to have many weaknesses.

And he won his last state title with an arm that was basically useless (the proverbial “one arm tied behind his back”) – how many 4 time GOAT candidates can say that?

As far as breaking barriers in sports and wrestling in particular – Bob Steenlage ranks at the top of the sport. That’s why he has a place in the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum and an annual award named after him given to the top senior wrestler in the state of IOWA!

It doesn’t get any better than that…

And to quote the late great radio voice Paul Harvey – “And now you know – the Rest of the Story!”
 
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THE CASE FOR BART REITER












This is the first of 2 Reiter brothers that you will see right off the bat, for as mentioned, I am starting off with the 4 timers in this series and Bart was the 2nd 4-timer in the Reiter family… the first one being 2nd oldest boy, Mack. Joe, Mack, Eddie and Bart Reiter…. I can’t be the only one who thinks Doug and Janet Reiter picker out some super cool and ultra tough names for their sons.

Sadly, Bart’s legacy of being one of the GOAT’s for Iowa HS State Wrestling has faded a bit, for when having this debate, people always want to include college and offseason accolades into the mix when formulating their opinions and claims… This isn’t always entirely fair and I don’t believe results in a claim or belief that is 100% accurate. There are a lot of factors that come into play when weighing these things out. For offseason accolades, maybe a guy didn’t reel in the Fargo titles and what-not because they were busy with other things? This may be the case, for I remember that Bart played baseball, which is something that I always respected him for, for I am personally a huge advocate for kids playing and succeeding in multiple sports despite the belief that you should devote your entire life in HS to wrestling in order to succeed at the next level. To each their own, but I believe a kid can benefit and vary their skill set as well as not burn themselves out of they choose to do more than just wrestle during the offseason. And with college, who knows what can happen to influence the outcomes… the line(s) of success are so thin. Someone could be injury plagued, have girlfriend/relationship priorities, burn out, have death(s) of loved ones to deal with, etc. that can all affect how their college careers unravel. Bart’s college career was injury plagued. IMO, you can’t knock him for that either. The way I look at it, if a guy raked in the offseason HS and collegiate accolades like say a Jeff McGinness, Mack Reiter, Jay Borschel, Cory Clark, etc. then awesome! That further proves how great they were and adds more ammo to their argument for being the GOAT. However, if a guy is lacking in one of those areas, I refuse to use that as a knock against them because you never know what they could have been dealing with or doing at the time which may have contributed to the outcome… Besides, the debate is “The Greatest HS of All Time” and a guy should be critiqued in this debate, primarily on just that… how they did in their wrestling careers in HS sanctioned events in the state of Iowa. And no matter how you lay it out or mix it up or perceive it, Bart is in the conversation for that and there really is to much to debate with it. Kid was good. He won 4 titles. He finished with a record of 162-2 and the Don Bosco teams that he wrestled for won state all 4 years he was in High School. His two losses were both to guys who were state champions themselves (Cruse Aarhaus and Nick Trizzino) and they were both 1-2 point matches. He had a deadly cradle and was dangerous just like his brother, Mack (and Joe and Eddie as well) so he was “in” any match he ever wrestled, for no matter how the match was going to a certain point, he was always capable of executing a match-decisive move to win it. He and Mack were the first sibling pair to win 4 state titles and were the only ones all the way until 2020 when Cael Happel from Lisbon won his 4th title, following the footsteps of his brother Carter who won 4. The guys he beat in the finals and at the previous rounds were gamers… He had the following finals matchups from Freshmen to Senior year: Kendall Witt, Cam Wagner, Jason Winkler, Cam Wagner. It should be noted that he also won brackets that included Ridge Kiley, Colton Wagner and other various state champions in the bracket. Bart Reiter was something else. It was a lot of fun to watch him. One of the best ever HS wrestlers in the state of Iowa.

Bart is the only 12x state champ that I know of. 4 individual, 4 traditional team and 4 state dual championships…
 
This thread is awesome, and as someone new to following Iowa high school wrestling, I very much appreciate it. I've only skimmed so far, but one thing I noticed is there isn't a mention of the years some of these guys competed. Could you try to include that? If not, no big deal. For a newb like me though, it helps put things in perspective. What years was CJ in high school? Thanks for these write ups!
 
I’ve been loving these, thank you.

On an extremely random note, I got a kick out of this specifically:


And in the finals match that tested him the most, he defeated lat drop king, Chad Hutchinson from Mepo by 4-5 points.

I got launched and pinned by by Chad in high school at a tourney in Mediapolis. Sophomore year maybe? All I remember is starting to go upper body with him and my coach yelling “DON’T!” about 1 second before my feet left the mat. Good times.
 
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THE CASE FOR ERIC JUERGENS

I figured I would get this one out of the way, for I know how eager Eric probably is to read about his undeniable wrestling greatness for the thousandth time in the past 7 months since I began this site… being given an abundance of attention is what’s most important to Eric Juergens. JK!!! That is a JOKE!!! It is very likely that when Eric reads that he is the subject of yet another wrestling article that puts a giant magnifying glass on his absolute work of art of a wrestling career, his initial response may be, “wow, still a lot of hoopla over something that I did a long time ago…Why are people still talking about that?” Because that’s how humble he is. A lot of wrestlers, including your world-beating, highly accomplished wrestlers love the attention they received and continue to receive from being so awesome and I don’t blame them. Some of the things that some of these guys did only happened to me in my dreams. Eric couldn’t care less about that…. However, that still doesn’t give him an escape from the GOAT series I’ve kicked off. “Hua-hua-hua!!! Mr. Juergens, you may be able to score an escape at will against anyone in a wrestling match, but you will never escape the wrath of my incessant wrestling-babble!!! Sorry man, you were just too awesome.”

I’ve mentioned about 45,564 times already that I have gone back and forth with several wrestlers who I had personally chosen as the guy I thought to be the GOAT. Eric Juergens is the most longstanding one, for he is the one I thought of as the GOAT from Junior High all the way until a TJ Sebolt or Jay Borschel or John Meeks forces me to reconsider a bit, but then I ultimately end up back on Juergens. Then I started putting these videos together and was re-familiarized with Jeff McGinness and got the chance to watch Mark Schwab, Dan Knight, Shane Light and Kent Streicher wrestle for the first time ever and I started to reconsider and have landed on Schwab and have landed on McGinness and have landed on Knight and have landed on Jason Kelber, etc. I always end up making my way back to thinking it’s Eric Juergens, though. It’s like that song, “Back To You” by John Mayer from the early 2000’s. That song that goes, “back to you, it always comes around, back to you. Tried to stay away, but it’s too late.” The main difference between that song and the GOAT topic for me is that I believe John Mayer is singing about a girl and here I am, applying it to Eric Juergens in a GOAT debate. With that said, you won’t ever catch me singing that song to Eric Juergens. But it does kind of fit, in a funny way for me. It is too late… he was my grandpa’s favorite as well as my brother, Justin and I and maybe part of that planted a bias in me that I can’t shake? Not to mention, Juergens is from Maquoketa… He is a Mississippi River-rat, born and raised, as was I. I grew up near the bluff from the Mississippi. Mepo is located on HWY 61, as is Maquoketa. In fact, Maquoketa was usually in our district in the 90’s so we saw Eric and Marc wrestle quite a bit… The Juergens bros grew up an hour and a half up the river from us, but he still seems like “our area 4Xer.” The one we river-dwellers could identify with the most. He is the only 4X state champ other than Dan Knight that I can think of who is in the same news coverage region as us…. Yeah….sorry, Eric, but you are going to be a lot of peoples’ Iowa wrestling GOAT’s for a longggg time!

One thing that’s interesting is that a lot of people’s GOAT pics are heavily influenced by the geographical region they are from. Basically all NE Iowa will say Schwab. McGinness is pretty widespread, but Iowa City and Cedar Rapids he has on lockdown with an exception of some guys who will choose Borschel… Hopefully Dan Leclere and Nick Moore are mentioned soon. A lot of Southern Iowa will say Moyer or Sebolt. Des Moines area you will hear a lot of Cory Clark and John Meeks. Lisbon and surrounding parts will mention the Happels. SW gets a ton of David Kjeldgaard. Juergens and Knight get a lot of love from Southeast Iowa, Quad Cities and Dubuque, but from different age groups than each other.

Enough of all that, let’s get to the facts. Eric Juergens was a 4X state champion with an unblemished record of 144-0. He did have a close call here and there when he was a Freshman, but ultimately came out unscathed. He was a 2x NCAA D1 Champion for the Hawkeyes and was the 2001 Big 10 Wrestler of the Year. Simply put, can’t get much better than that and it’d be tough to make an argument against him.
 
I’ve been loving these, thank you.

On an extremely random note, I got a kick out of this specifically:




I got launched and pinned by by Chad in high school at a tourney in Mediapolis. Sophomore year maybe? All I remember is starting to go upper body with him and my coach yelling “DON’T!” about 1 second before my feet left the mat. Good times.

Was my teammate my whole life... saw him do it to literally dozens of placers and champs. He was dangerous.
 
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You going to make a case for Jay Borschel? 4x'er that went from 103 up to 171.

Absolutely! I’m gonna make a case for all 4 timers, all 3 timers, hell even some 1 timers who had their moments...

I mean, it’ll get to a point where obviously they aren’t the GOAT, but it’s just fun to revisit their careers.
 
I think 2002 Dan Davila... Dan Davila as a Senior, (not the previous 3 years), is the best 103 pounder I have ever seen in my entire life... and that’s the only year he won it.

So many guys have had their moments to discuss. Should be fun.
 
This thread is awesome, and as someone new to following Iowa high school wrestling, I very much appreciate it. I've only skimmed so far, but one thing I noticed is there isn't a mention of the years some of these guys competed. Could you try to include that? If not, no big deal. For a newb like me though, it helps put things in perspective. What years was CJ in high school? Thanks for these write ups!

Yes indeed! I think I should have been doing that all along. CJ graduated in ‘02
 
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I think 2002 Dan Davila... Dan Davila as a Senior, (not the previous 3 years), is the best 103 pounder I have ever seen in my entire life... and that’s the only year he won it.

So many guys have had their moments to discuss. Should be fun.
Guessing that’s a pretty short list since there’s not many seniors @ 103#.
 
Thanks for all the work you have done on these stories, they are very enjoyable to read.

Glad you like them... would it be unnecessary for me to post articles from guys who did not wrestle for the Hawkeyes, but wrestled in Iowa in HS? Am kind of going back and forth as to whether or not I should post a few of these on here (Brandon Mason, Keith Pearl, Clark Yoder, etc... there are like 90 others)... I just don’t want to come in here and immediately cramp the style. Glad you are liking it!
 
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Glad you like them... would it be unnecessary for me to post articles from guys who did not wrestle for the Hawkeyes, but wrestled in Iowa in HS? Am kind of going back and forth as to whether or not I should post a few of these on here (Brandon Mason, Keith Pearl, Clark Yoder, etc... there are like 90 others)... I just don’t want to come in here and immediately cramp the style. Glad you are liking it!

Speaking only for myself...I admire all hard working wrestlers, whether they wrestle for the Hawks or not. It's just that I want the Hawk wrestler to win in any head to head match. :).

So I would still be interested in those stories myself.
 
Who Is The Iowa HS Wrestling GOAT?! The Case For Jake Marlin, Creston
by RICO SWAFFon JUNE 27, 2020 EDIT
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Jake Marlin. I started hearing whispers and what-not about him being a potential Tazmanian Devil with wrestling shoes around the 2nd half of the season his Freshman year, but I hadn’t ever seen him. I read his stats in AAU. He was from Creston and that’s located on the opposite side of the state from me… Mostly just some message board rumblings… “watch out for this kid, he’s about to break out, he started to as an 8th grader last year” type stuff. So my interest was sparked…. it was a full-blown forest fire when I witnessed him wrestle in one of the best, craziest matches I have ever seen in my entire life. He was up against a guy named Tanner Schmidt from New Hampton… a former state champ and Senior who had a reputation for being pretty physical out there and always wore his emotions on his sleeves. He was fun to watch. Anyways, they were at 130 pounds, I believe and it was the semifinals, I believe. Tough, take no prisoners Senior vs. a Freshman who is starting to make huge waves. The match was a scramble from start to finish and the entire crowd seemed to be fixated on that mat. If you were a Freshman, one of the last Seniors you would want to collide with in the semis at State was Tanner Schmidt. He was a tough, physical wrestler who would not be shy to put a Freshman through 6 minutes of mat-hazing. But Marlin was swinging back. The kid had guts. That was obvious to everyone right away and was solidified in the final period of the match. They reached an OT period where they started scrambling some more and Marlin caught Schmidt on his back and Schmidt fought off his back and cane back after him and Marlin put him down again… he put him on his back at least 2-3 times in that OT period to win the match and advance to the finals and it was weird because there was not much scoring before those moments. One of the wildest things I have ever seen. I had to learn more about the kid. I knew he was a High Altitude kid coached by Chad Tunink and Zach Mulder in the AAU scene. I knew Zach through my brother and his son having battles together and always loved his input, for it was always spot on, to the point and usually pretty funny. I’ll never forget when he told me about Marlin. He said, “yeah, guys used to tease him a bit because he used to do silly stuff like get out of position and pinned when leading or whatever and just did dumb things on the mat, but I remember telling them, ‘you just wait, because when that kid gets it, he is gonna be one baaaaadddd motor-scooter.’” I hadn’t ever heard someone referred to as a motor-scooter before and I loved it… I use that phrase and feel cool every time I do, to this day! And Jake was exactly that… a bad motor-scooter. Zach can probably make a living teaching lessons on how to be cool.

His final three years he looked so good that he looked like he was straight-up bouncing and body-slamming his opponents on trampolines and just wrecking their worlds. He was fun.

Marlin was in the same grade as Brandon Sorensen from Denver-Tripoli who also won 4 titles and this was always interesting to me because their styles couldn’t be any different than each other. The only guy I remember giving him repetitive trouble was a kid from Albia named Matt White from Albia. He seemed to wreck through about everyone else. He won 4 state titles and take a look at some of the guys who placed in the brackets he won: Dakota Bauer (Ballard), Drew Foster (Mepo), Eric Clarke (Assumption), Logan Thomsen (Union), Adam Skopec (Spirit Lake Park), Tanner Schmidt (New Hampton). All those guys were state champs except for Foster, but he was an NCAA champ. He also beat Tyler Patten in the finals one year. Patten placed 3-3-2-2.

Was Jake Marlin the GOAT? I’ll say this, the kid had moments in his matches that looked more impressive than anything else I’ve ever seen, so in spurts, maybe? He is a 4 timer with some HUGE moments in his career. I’m glad Iowa HS Wrestling produced a Jake Marlin. A bad motor-scooter.
 
Speaking only for myself...I admire all hard working wrestlers, whether they wrestle for the Hawks or not. It's just that I want the Hawk wrestler to win in any head to head match. :).

So I would still be interested in those stories myself.

Right on, that’s how I feel too.

I think what I will do is just make a “Remember The Wrestler Non-Hawkeyes” thread and post some of the other ones there.... unless someone is affiliated heavy with or known by a large percentage of the fan base for being huge Hawk supporters... Like JJ Butteris. Will prolly give him his own thread.

I’m just glad that you guys are liking it. I’ve been an avid poster on message boards since I was 16 and have probably posted 50k times on a combination of The Predicament, Iowa Preps and Chiefsplanet message boards and hell, you guys gave me a much more warm welcome than I have when starting out at other forums... I wish I would have been posting these here a long time ago.
 
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Was Jake Marlin the GOAT? I’ll say this, the kid had moments in his matches that looked more impressive than anything else I’ve ever seen, so in spurts, maybe? He is a 4 timer with some HUGE moments in his career. I’m glad Iowa HS Wrestling produced a Jake Marlin. A bad motor-scooter.

I remember being very interested in seeing what Jake could do down at a big tourney in KC as I hadn't seen much of him but he was an Iowa recruit. He was on his way to being a four timer but was on a collision course to wrestle a tough kid from Missouri who I also kept track of back then because he went to one of my old high schools. Anyways, the match happened and the Missouri kid took Jake down in the first and ended up pinning him with a cradle later on in the match. I think most on here thinking that Jake just got "caught" (he didn't). I wondered if we were recruiting the Missouri kid because he was damn good but was told he was a one trick pony who would not succeed in college because college guys don't get cradled like that...plus, we kind of had to recruit Marlin because Iowa 4 timers don't grow on trees.

That kid was future 4 time AA Daniel Lewis. A thread on Twitter reminded me of Lewis because Flo posted a question "Who's better than Ed at the cradle?" Well, Daniel Lewis was...also had more career pins than Ed. After talking to folks, Lewis was pretty much Mizzou's early on but would have liked to have seen what he could do at Iowa...his weakness was his gas tank. A lot of good NCAA points there.
 
Yes indeed! I think I should have been doing that all along. CJ graduated in ‘02

‘03 actually. Am seriously impressed with your knowledge of all those guys! CJ started his career 10-2 or 10-3 then he never lost again. He started his sophomore year with quite the target on his back thanks to his cocky mature and almost lost his first match of the year at belle plaine tournament. It was an epic finals that day between cj and I believe hinschberger (dropped a close match to Jesse sundell in state semifinals). Never saw a gym root against one person like that before, it was nuts. Was any of you there that day?
 
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In watching all of the videos you posted the name Matt Otten of Manly North Central came up. If I recall he went something like 2-1-1-2 and only had a handful of losses in his HS career. I think his senior season he lost a close match to Shane Light, giving Light his 3rd of 4 titles.

Another guy I knew was good but didn't realize HOW good was Kelber. It's nice to see he is mentioned ITT.

Johnny Scott is a name that is before my time from the mid 80s but it looks like he lost in the finals 3x, each by 1 point. Do you know anything more about him?
 
‘03 actually. Am seriously impressed with your knowledge of all those guys! CJ started his career 10-2 or 10-3 then he never lost again. He started his sophomore year with quite the target on his back thanks to his cocky mature and almost lost his first match of the year at belle plaine tournament. It was an epic finals that day between cj and I believe hinschberger (dropped a close match to Jesse sundell in state semifinals). Never saw a gym root against one person like that before, it was nuts. Was any of you there that day?

Good catch! Dang I knew better... he was in the same class as my brother...

My brother and CJ went back and forth consistently for years and it all began here:



And they went back and forth and back and forth alllllll the way until their last match... the final varsity wrestle-offs for the season for UNI... CJ won in double-OT to earn the varsity nod for conference. It was the last match my brother ever wrestled... it literally ended his career. They were both Seniors, so both of their careers were both literally on the line in that challenge match.

It destroyed us, bad... but I think CJ is one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen and is a wonderful person. I’d love to get those two to sit down and talk about all the battles they had and well, reconcile. I know it’d mean the world to CJ if Justin came around and was willing to do that.

Hell, with Justin, I am working on an Inside The Rivalry article between he and Mack. I never thought that’d ever happen.

Justin had pretty fun back and forth rivalries with CJ, Mack, Jacob Naig and of course...Moza Fay. God that was fun.
 
In watching all of the videos you posted the name Matt Otten of Manly North Central came up. If I recall he went something like 2-1-1-2 and only had a handful of losses in his HS career. I think his senior season he lost a close match to Shane Light, giving Light his 3rd of 4 titles.

Another guy I knew was good but didn't realize HOW good was Kelber. It's nice to see he is mentioned ITT.

Johnny Scott is a name that is before my time from the mid 80s but it looks like he lost in the finals 3x, each by 1 point. Do you know anything more about him?


Apparently he was a PHENOMENAL wrestler...one of the best to not win state hands down.



I’d be lying through my teeth if I were to say that the first thing that came to my mind with Johnny Scott WASN’T his mom attacking the ref at the end of this match...
 
Definitely the best I ever saw that wasn't a four timer would be Timmy Klinghammer! Waterloo 112 pounder in 1982. I think he won in 80 also but may have gotten thrown out of school his Senior year. He came to our hotel room for a couple of hours before the finals his Junior year and drank a couple beers, smoked a little and then realized that the grand march was about to start! He went back and beat Ron Lower from Heelan something like 17-3. Also two time champ Dan Kaufman from Emmetsburg in his Senior year at 138. I'm not sure but may have pinned his way through but I remember feeling sorry for his opponents that year. I saw way to much of the Kaufman family destroying our guys over the years!:mad:;)
 
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I do have some bias here, as he was a teammate and also a neighbor. David Kjeldgaard, I believe 2 losses his freshman year at 119 at state took 5th. Then a 3 timer. I don’t believe he gave up another takedown freshman year on and no losses. Another one I would like to mention. Jeff Bellows, had a dozen losses his fresh and sophomore year all from the hands of his cousin Darren Coppock. Our city tourney, districts and at state. Won it his junior year and then took 3rd his senior year. Eric Keller (UNI) won it that year. Luckily he didn’t have to see Jeff in the finals as every other match they wrestled in high school was dominated by Jeff.
 
I do have some bias here, as he was a teammate and also a neighbor. David Kjeldgaard, I believe 2 losses his freshman year at 119 at state took 5th. Then a 3 timer. I don’t believe he gave up another takedown freshman year on and no losses. Another one I would like to mention. Jeff Bellows, had a dozen losses his fresh and sophomore year all from the hands of his cousin Darren Coppock. Our city tourney, districts and at state. Won it his junior year and then took 3rd his senior year. Eric Keller (UNI) won it that year. Luckily he didn’t have to see Jeff in the finals as every other match they wrestled in high school was dominated by Jeff.

Do you remember Eric Keller’s finals match? It’s one of the craziest endings I’ve ever seen.

 
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