What was thought to be just a sprain turned out to be something much more serious. During practice this week Keaton Geerts’ leg kept locking up and he decided to get it checked out. The news wasn’t great. The two-time state champion and future Northern Iowa Panther suffered a torn ACL back in February, prior to the conference championships.
“If you have a strong mental approach, anything is possible,” New Hampton Head Coach Nick Hemann said on the injury, “I will never stop using this story as inspiration and the mental approach to wrestling for my athletes. Keaton’s mindset is going to make him very successful at Northern Iowa and beyond in life. We’re bummed he can’t make a run at a Fargo title but we have to look towards bigger goals.”
Geerts is scheduled for surgery in two weeks and the recovery time is estimated at six months. The future panther will have to miss the coveted Fargo National Championships but will be back just in time for the start of the collegiate season. Geerts plans to redshirt and focus on rehabbing his knee.
“I’m bummed to miss Fargo,” said Keaton Geerts, “I could of done rehab and wrestled for a national freestyle title, but after consideration we decided to just get the surgery and prepare for the future.”
The New Hampton senior ended his high school career with an 173-21 record and a two-time state champion. Geerts is currently #18 in the country at 138 pounds and is projected to wrestle 141 pounds for UNI.
Not only did Geerts win a state title with the torn ACL, but he nearly majored Jakob Bergeland at the War at the West Gym whom was ranked in the top 20 nationally. He won by decision 6-1.