No. 1 seed Keckeisen, from blue collar Northern Iowa, seeks to end a strong season with an NCAA title

Of all the undefeated No. 1 seeds competing at the 2024 NCAA Championships (there are seven of them), one of the most impressive and perhaps least publicized is UNI’s Parker Keckeisen at 184 pounds.

Perhaps it has to do with where he goes to school. Maybe it has to do with his personal style and the personality of his team. Perhaps it has to do with other things he can’t control. Regardless about what others say or think about him, Keckeisen takes pride in the hard work that got him here.

“I feel like I am ready to roll. I have really worked on little things, little skills. Almost me taking control of my training and trusting myself in that aspect. It is being super intentional, whether it is working on getting gritty on the top or my hand skills, just finding ways to get better. I think my skills are improving, and that is the goal,” he said.

For the record, Keckeisen comes into the NCAA Championships with a 26-0 record, His season started with a win over Bernie Truax of Penn State at the NWCA All-Star Classic, and included a big win at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. His victory in the finals of the Big 12 Championships over Oklahoma State’s tough Dustin Plott was his 100^th collegiate victory of his career.

A redshirt junior, Keckeisen seeks to become just the sixth UNI wrestler to be a four-time All-American. He is just the fourth No. 1 seed for the Panthers since Olympian Doug Schwab became the head coach. Trust me, being a part of the UNI program is something that helps define Keckeisen, and certainly helps motivate him daily.

“We are a small school. We are blue collar, that is what we are. I don’t wear blue shoes because of that, but I was thinking of that on the way here. We are the team that gets up, we work with our hands, we are gritty, we are selfless, we’re coachable. We are going to find ways to get better, find ways to continue to improve each day. That is all you can ask for. That is what Doug preaches, consistently getting better. We are a small school, low budget, but that is what fires us up. We are firey, and ready to go take it.”

When talking to Keckeisen, the conversation always includes his teammates, those like-minded athletes who are in the fox-hole with him every day, grinding to improve themselves and push their teammates to new levels of performance. Consider the recent Big 12 Championships.

“We have some gritty, gritty guys. We are going to wrestle through the whistle. That is super important. Wait until you see Ryder Downey wrestle like that, Cael Happel in the finals, go in and give it their all. Then you see Wyatt Voelker get a pin against a guy he lost to last year. You see the improvement, guys getting better. Even Adam Allard, he is wrestling his butt off. He didn’t have the greatest regular season but you saw improvement. That’s what you see the last two weeks. After Big 12s, it’s what skills can we work on, what adjustments can we make. For me, it’s continue to finish well and work finishes on the edge,” said Keckeisen.

One of the questions Keckeisen received at the NCAA Championships pre-event press conference was about the drama of having to change their training location, which will result in a new state-of-the-art facility for Panther wrestling.

“Not having a room, I think it's brought us closer together. It's just like when COVID happened – you gotta find a way to get better at wrestling or are you going to let the circumstances control you? We found a way. We got to built a room together. It brought us closer./ Doug tells us all the time, are you going to put this script on it? So I think we turned it into a positive. And now we're here. The guys we compete against, I don't think they care if we have to shower at home or if we get to have a locker room. It doesn’t matter. I'm just going to go scrap,” he said.

Keckeisen also told the media in attendance that he doesn’t like to compete. When watching him on the mat, that is hard to understand. He explains it this way.

“I don’t love to compete, so called. I love to get in the practice room. That is easy for me. I love the process. Ryder, Wyatt, those young guys, Trevor Anderson, are really close knit. Hanging out with them, they are making me laugh, making me enjoy this time. There aren’t many NCAA Tournaments you get to go to. It is a blessing and it makes you enjoy it. They are reminding me to enjoy this a little bit more.”

This is the 100^th season for UNI wrestling, and Keckeisen would like nothing better than to finish it off with an NCAA title of his own, and to see his Panther teammates do some serious damage, as well. And though Keckeisen is not one of those guys to put attention on himself, don’t for a minute doubt his confidence in himself and his passion to wrestle at a high level.

“I think I am one of the best wrestlers in the country. I know my skills are there. We judge it on three days in March. I try to be consistent, and hopefully the results take care of themselves. If I win, that’s not what I can control. I can go out there and fight and give my best effort. I think my skills are showing and I plan on showing it some more,” he said.