New Hampton state champ Carson Babcock commits to Northern Iowa wrestling program

The Panther Train scooped up another talented in-state wrestler this week.

Carson Babcock, a senior for New Hampton-Turkey Valley, announced his commitment to the Northern Iowa wrestling program on Saturday. He becomes the seventh known commitment for the Panthers' 2021 recruiting class.

Babcock went 46-0 and won the Class 2A state title at 170 pounds this past season. He finished his career 163-21 overall, according to stats kept through Trackwrestling, and was a two-time state medalist. He is currently ranked No. 23 nationally at 170 pounds by MatScouts, and projects at 165/174 for the Panthers.

Babcock joins a strong class that will join Doug Schwab and the Northern Iowa program soon. Among them:

• Union's Adam Ahrendsen, a three-time 2A state finalist and 2020 state champ;
• Don Bosco's Cael Rahnavardi, a two-time 1A state finalist
• Southeast Polk's Kalob Runyon, a two-time state medalist and recent Junior folkstyle All-American at 220 pounds;
• Kansas state champ Jared Simma, who recently won a Junior folkstyle national title at 182 and is ranked No. 23 nationally by MatScouts at the same weight;
• Georgia state champ RJ Weston, who's ranked No. 14 nationally at 160;
• and Connor Thorpe, a Wisconsin state champ and recent Junior All-American at 145.

Not bad company to keep.

Babcock also becomes the 18th in-state senior to commit to a Division I wrestling program. Of that total, 11 are staying in-state. Drake Ayala and Caleb Rathjen are both going to Iowa, and Gabe Greenlee, Jack Gaukel, Caleb Helgeson, Ashton Barker and Damon Huston are all going to Iowa State.

The other seven are going out of state:

• Waverly-Shell Rock's Bailey Roybal, a 2020 state champ, is headed to South Dakota State;
• both Woodbury Central's Beau Klingensmith and Osage's Spencer Mooberry, a 2021 state champ, are going to North Dakota State;
• Iowa City West's Graham Gambrall, a 2020 state champ, signed with Oregon State;
• Cascade's Aidan Noonan, a three-time 1A state champ, is headed to Wyoming;
• Dubuque Hempstead's Chad Bellis, a 3A state finalist, is going to Appalachian State;
• and Waukee's Cole Ferguson, a 3A state medalist, is headed to Oklahoma.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.