Another Iowan among the hopefuls on ‘The Bachelorette’

Another wannabe groom is springing from the Hawkeye state to Hollywood.

Waverly native Derek Peth - who now lives in Fort Lauderdale but has a picture of the Wartburg College athletic track and football field as his Facebook cover photo - is vying to win The Bachelorette's heart when the ABC-TV reality romance returns May 23.

A commercial banker, Peth, 29, is among 26 suitors banking on grabbing the attention and affection of JoJo Fletcher, a Texas real estate developer. She previously won the heart of Bachelor Ben Higgins this spring, but so did contestant Lauren Bushnell, a California flight attendant who flew past Fletcher to the top of a rocky precipice. Breakup rumors about Higgins and Bushnell are flying around the Internet, but they are reportedly now living together in Denver, Colo.

Peth, a 2009 Wartburg grad who ran track, is the son of former Hawkeye basketball star Dick Peth, now a storied basketball coach at the Waverly college.

The athletic, 6-foot-3-inch bachelor also has his 'baby blues” in his wooing arsenal, and points to his parents' marriage as the model for his matrimonial desires.

'I've seen my parents work through life's challenges and successes for 33 years, so I'm looking for someone ready to give as much as I will to make life fun and fulfilled,” he writes in his 'Bachelorette” contestant profile.

That's where he also confides a fear of 'fluffy kittens,” his dislike for cucumbers, and his ability to survive on a desert island as long as he had duct tape.

Showing a little more depth of character, he points to Ben Franklin as the person he most admires: 'He was able to view the world with childlike wonder to feed his creative/inventive side and balance that with a work ethic that produced massive shifts for the greater good.”

Chris Soules of Arlington, dubbed 'Prince Farming,” made the leap from being a contestant on 'The Bachelorette” in 2014 to being the star of 'The Bachelor” in 2015.