Kadel added to Iowa State coaching staff

Iowa State head women’s wrestling coach Alli St. John has made her first staff hire, adding Jake Kadel as assistant coach. Kadel joins the Cyclones after three seasons as head women’s wrestling coach at William Penn, where he turned the program into a national contender.

Kadel inherited a William Penn program that finished 33rd at the 2023 NAIA National Championships the season before his arrival. In three seasons, he guided the Statesmen to fourth-place finishes in each of his first two seasons before a national runner-up finish in 2025-26, when William Penn finished with 158.5 points behind Life University’s 169. The Statesmen also claimed their first Heart of America Athletic Conference team title in program history last season behind five individual champions.

Across three seasons at William Penn, Kadel coached nine national champions and 18 All-Americans, sent 33 wrestlers to the NAIA National Championships, produced 13 Heart of America Conference individual champions and had wrestlers named NAIA Scholar-Athletes 24 times. The Statesmen went 27-13 in duals during his tenure.

Before William Penn, Kadel served on the men’s and women’s staffs at Iowa Wesleyan from 2020-23 and was promoted to head coach of both programs for the 2022-23 season before the university closed in May 2023. In his final season there, the women’s team placed seventh at the NAIA National Championships, sending 11 wrestlers to the tournament with five All-Americans, including one national champion. He has also coached at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Ohio and served as an instructor at Hard Drive Performance Center in Cedar Rapids and a volunteer at Ubasa Wrestling Academy in North Liberty.

As a competitor, Kadel was a four-time letterwinner at Iowa from 2011-16 with a 28-20 career record. Before that, he posted a 189-13 record at New London High School, where he was a four-time state placer, including one runner-up finish and three third-place finishes, and a four-time conference, sectional and district champion. His 189 career wins ranked sixth in Iowa state history at the time.

A New London, Iowa, native, Kadel holds a degree in human physiology from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in biomedical science from the University of Toledo.