Best Iowa HS athlete of all time

deadeyededric

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Lolo Jones was a stumble away from an Olympic Medal.
Dawn Huff(Zeke Elliots mom) was dominant at Mount Ayr in the early 90s. Iowa female athlete of the year in like '91. She won like 4 individual track titles, first team all state in volleyball, basketball, and softball too her SR yr.
She was one of the better female athletes I've seen. Ran track at Mizzou.
 
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Bipolarcy

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Ben Kueter from Iowa City HS just won the U20 world championship in Bulgaria for wrestling at 97 kg. He's a top 10 overall pound for pound recruit in wrestling. He is a Iowa football and wrestling commit- a 4 star linebacker, 2x state wrestling champ, and also a standout in baseball + T&F. It got me thinking he has to be high on the list of best Iowa HS athletes of all time. Some others that came to mind:

Tim Dwight - won a billion T&F titles + elite all state football

Jeff Clement - Broke the national all time hs homerun record, don't remember if he played other sports though

Jeff Horner - 4x elite all state basketball, standout in football, baseball, and track

Harrison Barnes - At times was the consensus #1 overall bball recruit in the country, did some high jump and long jump in T&F but otherwise didn't play any other sports

Austen Arnaud - One of the best HS quarterbacks I have seen play in person. Also played basketball, baseball, and ran track, was a standout in all 3 but not near as elite as he was in football


Who did I leave off the list?
Fred Hoiberg. Elite in both football and basketball.
 

CloneFanInKC

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Wish he would have stuck with track, he outstanding potential in track.
Got to the point where his mass deminished his highest attribute - speed.

Injuries also caught up to him IMO.
 

DurangoCy

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I wasn't saying superior or inferior. Everybody else seems to think inferior.
The idea that Muhammad Ali or Jordan Burroughs aren't insanely elite rare athletes vs any other sport is insane. Iowa is elite producing wrestlers, not track & field olympians...the basis of my premise, not that track is inferior.

Iowa has had a wrestler in every olympics for a full century. Neither sport is really very popular except for one week every four years.

In my opinion, this conversation requires you to be great at no less than 2-3 Iowa HS sports. In many cases, if you're great at one of: football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, whatever, then you have to go blow the doors off of everyone at another sport to be considered for the OP's "greatest Iowa HS athlete" criteria.

I think the skill set with wrestling is so unlike all other sports offered by Iowa, that it's really tough for your #1 sport to be wresting (collegiate/Olympic level), then go out and dominate another sport in Iowa. The Iowa football guys, who also won championships in wrestling (as their second sport), and/or shot put would rank higher on my list vs. solely a multiple state champ wrestler that went onto the Olympics.

Story time: We had a wrestler in HS that was a brick ****-house and decided to go out for track one year. Everyone was stoked, because we could never get more than 2 good sprinters on the team at any one time. Well the 1st meet comes around and Johnny Monster Biceps is in lane 4 queued up to dominate. We're ready for appointment viewing and the gun goes off - bang. 30 yards in, Fabio is in last place by 5 yards when we all realize he's 5'2" and his legs are traveling about 1.5' per stride. It was a sad day for the track team that day and he spent the rest of the year getting the baton from freshmen and the weighmen in the 4x100 relays. ...so, maybe I'm biased. :)
 
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Cy4Lifer

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Ben Kueter from Iowa City HS just won the U20 world championship in Bulgaria for wrestling at 97 kg. He's a top 10 overall pound for pound recruit in wrestling. He is a Iowa football and wrestling commit- a 4 star linebacker, 2x state wrestling champ, and also a standout in baseball + T&F. It got me thinking he has to be high on the list of best Iowa HS athletes of all time. Some others that came to mind:

Tim Dwight - won a billion T&F titles + elite all state football

Jeff Clement - Broke the national all time hs homerun record, don't remember if he played other sports though

Jeff Horner - 4x elite all state basketball, standout in football, baseball, and track

Harrison Barnes - At times was the consensus #1 overall bball recruit in the country, did some high jump and long jump in T&F but otherwise didn't play any other sports

Austen Arnaud - One of the best HS quarterbacks I have seen play in person. Also played basketball, baseball, and ran track, was a standout in all 3 but not near as elite as he was in football


Who did I leave off the list?
Denise Long - Union Whitten basketball
Debbie Coates - Mediapolis basketball
Lynn Lorenzen - Ventura basketball
 
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CyNews

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Ben Kueter from Iowa City HS just won the U20 world championship in Bulgaria for wrestling at 97 kg. He's a top 10 overall pound for pound recruit in wrestling. He is a Iowa football and wrestling commit- a 4 star linebacker, 2x state wrestling champ, and also a standout in baseball + T&F. It got me thinking he has to be high on the list of best Iowa HS athletes of all time. Some others that came to mind:

Tim Dwight - won a billion T&F titles + elite all state football

Jeff Clement - Broke the national all time hs homerun record, don't remember if he played other sports though

Jeff Horner - 4x elite all state basketball, standout in football, baseball, and track

Harrison Barnes - At times was the consensus #1 overall bball recruit in the country, did some high jump and long jump in T&F but otherwise didn't play any other sports

Austen Arnaud - One of the best HS quarterbacks I have seen play in person. Also played basketball, baseball, and ran track, was a standout in all 3 but not near as elite as he was in football


Who did I leave off the list?
Treye Jackson from Newton. Already put in for Jerry Moses, but that was quite an era for the Cardinals.
 

Cy4Lifer

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Are all of those players from the 6 on 6 era? If so, that was bad basketball and most were not that athletic.
Yes, they were. Many teams generally averaged scores in the 70’s - 80’s, girls could drive and score with only two dribbles from near half court, passing was highly skilled. It was actually very good basketball, just different. It is very disrespectful to say that these players “were not that athletic”. Also add Jeanette Olson from Everly, and Lisa Brinkmeyer from Hubbard-Radcliffe.
 
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CloneFanInKC

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I agree from a FB perspective.

Track he would have diminished the mass
Agree and apologize for my poor wording. What you typed is what I intended.

He never would’ve gained the mass if he was strictly track.