RicoSwaff

I was a perennial in youth (placed every year at state, won 2 state titles) and at the HS level (Mediapolis, IA) I am likely known as a bit of an underachiever considering I placed just one time at the Iowa HS State Wrestling Tournament. I ended up competing D3 for Loras College in Dubuque, IA for 3.5 years and was up and down. Had the capacity to pin the national champ at my weight, but also routinely lost to guys who weren’t even varsity. One time at the Loras Open I pinned Wartburg’s starter who had just won the Harold Nichols at Iowa State the week before and in the finals I got my butt kicked by the guy who was 3rd string behind him! I was able to effectively Hit a lot of; carries, cradles, headlocks and Merkles at every level; youth, HS and college. I Competed at Loras College until I dinged my knee in practice 4th year and while checking that, my doctor discovered I actually had hip dysplasia my entire life and ordered emergency reconstructive surgery on my hips… career was done, but my hips to this day feel like heaven and I am much more mobile now than I was before the surgery…. And that was about 15 years ago! My hips were maybe part of the reason I didn’t meet expectations in HS/college, for there were certain things I could not force my body to do… like, it felt structurally impossible trying to do them… for example: hitting a successful standup, turning the corner on high crotches, etc. seemed impossible. On the other hand, I was able to be more flexible while using my legs on top and in sprawl positions because my hips/legs would bend in ways that wouldn’t more most ppl. The PRIMARY reasons for not meeting expectations were; 1.) I thought 100X more about how to make weight than I did actually learning how to get better and 2.) I started going out/partying really hard as a Freshman in HS and this carried over to basically until I was 35 or so. I prioritized my social life above and beyond in comparison to wrestling and paid the price for it. Bright side with all that is that I’m the oldest of 4 brothers and was rather vocal to at least the youngest 2 bros who are 14 and 16 years younger than me about my experiences and always pounded it into their heads to not make the same mistakes as me. The one close to my age (Justin) was a 3X Iowa HS State Finalist/1X Champ/1X Folkstyle National Champ/2X Fargo AA who competed at UNI. The one 14 years younger than me (Shea) was a 3X Iowa HS State Placer and 4-year starter at NAIA Graceland. The youngest one (Brennan) placed 6-3-2-2 at state and after he couldn’t even get a D1 coach to email him back or respond to his applications, he initially went to Graceland University on a full ride for football (he was 1st team all state football, a 6X placer at state track in sprinting events and was even a state champ in Art of all things)… He went out for wrestling on a whim during Christmas break his Freshman year because he just couldn’t stand going to watch meets without competing… he would go on to win 2 NAIA titles there before transferring to Iowa to see what he could do at the D1 level and is in his final season this year… He’s one of these guys who may have been adversely affected by being a multi-sport wrestler who took his other sports just as serious as wrestling. That was a frustrating experience for him, but I doubt he would ever take back his football and track experiences for the world. Very happy that my brothers didn’t follow my path when it came to prioritizing wrestling/education/etc. As anxious as it makes me to merely THINK about any of the 3 doing what I did, it makes me feel that much more guilty for putting my parents through the stress I did. You live and learn I guess. Happy to at least been blessed with the chance to learn from it. Short Answer: Yes, I competed in D3 and won probably 65-70% of my matches there if I had to take a guess.

Meh, takes a lot for me to actively dislike someone…. Maybe if you said you didn’t like ice cream I’d start to lean that way because I know that anyone who doesn’t like ice cream is someone that I will likely disagree with about everything!

An absolutely blatant slap in the face to the sport of wrestling… One that the sport can not afford right now. Been a while since something in wrestling has made me angry like this. Ridiculous.

Holy moly you are still around?! You’ve been around for decades now! Iowa Preps or DMregister forums or something Way back when. I swear I remember you from way back to when I was posting as a high schooler! Glad to see you are still kickin it!

THERE WE GO!!! Haha that’s it!!! That’s the solution!!! I need to rally the troops and we all need to invade every political forum in existence with wrestling talk!!! haha awesome post!

Politics are pretty easy to avoid these days! Bye-golly-gee-youuuuu-betcha!!! if I had a dime for every political dispute I’ve had to babysit in the past 2 weeks on my own thing’s comment section, then I would probably have $100…. Which is nowhere near where I have to be in order to pay the electric bill this month! COME ON PEOPLE!!! PICK IT UP! THERE AREN’T ENOUGH POLITICAL DEBATES TAKING PLACE IN WRESTLING THREADS THESE DAYS! SLACKERS!!!

Have known Tanner Sloan since he was in Kindergarten (he and my bro had an “intense” rivalry from K-6th grade and met for the first of many times in the semis at state in Kindergarten…. He was one of my favorite guys in that class on and off the mat… fun wrestling style and nicest kid in the world off the mat. Great at football as well as 4H in his day as well! Easily one of my fave current NCAA wrestlers. In 2019 I interviewed probably 300 or so college/HS kids at random events that I covered for an old publication called The Predicament that I contributed for from 2007-2019… Out of everyone I’ve ever interviewed, Rocky Elam stands out as one of the most well-spoken, polite and appreciative wrestlers I’ve ever encountered. Have been a fan of his since!

Not a rival school to any college in my region that I know of (Iowa), but I am a big fan of the Hidlay brothers out of NC State, Hayden and Trent… love the way they compete… Also a fan of Andrew Alirez out of Northern Colorado. I think it’s so cool that he potentially sparked something special in his own home state! Love to see it!

He’s a great kid! Last year, I was a pretty big fan of the way Mason Parris competed. The older I get, the more I really just kind of respect and like them all as long as they aren’t dbags and if they give the vibe that they wrestle to win opposed to wrestle not to lose with their styles.

Props to whoever chose this server or whatever you call it for the forum because I can’t recall many that have been less of a headache to post pics on and I’ve posted on several over the years! So easy here….

I’ve done a ton of these. I call them “Wroppelgangers” on my own page/site. Carson Kharkla (SP?) of Ohio State = Biff from Back To The Future. Tom/Terry= the T-1000 Terminator from Terminator 2! Austin Desanto of Iowa= Christopher Moltisanti from The Sopranos! Austin Moltisanto! Hayden Hidlay of NC State= Billy Idol Cael Sanderson = Sling Blade Aaron Brooks of PSU= Skee-Lo Brennan Swafford of Iowa = white Mike Tyson Dalton Doud of Ottumwa HS = Nick Suriano of many places. Cobe Siebrecht of Iowa = Jim Morrison of The Doors Danny Stephani (2X Sup HWT State Champ out of Iowa in the ‘80s) = Jack Black Nelson Brands of Iowa = 2023 NBA Slam Dunk Champ, Mac McClung of the 76ers! Kaleb Young of Iowa = The bad guy from the movie “The Mask.”

A chance? I figured it was a certainty, but this is going by my own mindset with ice cream when at wrestling events, in which my train of thinking generally prioritizes the wrestling a distant 2nd in comparison to trying to beat the world record of most Dip N’ Dots ever consumed by a human at nearly every event I’m at! And as an Iowan, I can vouch that yes, a shortage of ice cream of any kind would instill anger into the veins of any Iowa wrestler in attendance and I would put my money on them with these circumstances as well!

I mean, yeah if you are stupid about it and spend it all via making it rain every night and purchasing a bunch of gold chains and what not…. Kueter doesn’t really strike me as the type…I can see him dropping a few mil on a grill, but not chains. On a serious note, man that gives me a sick feeling when a dude is in a potentially lucrative financial situation like that and they end up on a 30 for 30 “Broke” documentary anyways.

Dunno why my last reply formatted like that… lol looks like I was trying to yell to get that point across when in reality, I have no idea if I’m even right about that one or not.

I’d say he has more than a smidgen of a chance to be drafted in the NFL someday… I mean, he was named the USA Today Athlete Of The Year and from my observations, they don’t seem to make a habit of handing that award to people with only crazy-impressive wrestling accolades to their name. The average height and weight for a linebacker entering the NFL is 6’2 and 240 lbs… With Ben Kueter being 6’3 and around that weight, it’s not like there are a whole lot of, if any missing pieces for him in terms of becoming a legit NFL prospect someday… I mean, it’s not like he lacks the athleticism… no reason why he can’t be drafted someday, but that may be just my delusional opinion…