After the bell tolled midnight on yet another season for the ISU wrestling team, the overall complexion of the year can be summed up in a few words — just missed.

The Cyclones had a strong year by most teams’ standards, but left the Scottrade Center in St. Louis last Saturday night with a third-place trophy and a lot of “what would have happened if…”

“Shoot, we’re just going to work harder in the summer and improve by leaps and bounds,” said sophomore 165-pounder Jon Reader.

Reader and his teammates saw a year full of injuries, near-misses and an inability to finish on the biggest stages of the top tournaments.

Starting with the Midland Championships, where the Cyclones squandered a sizable lead over the eventual national champion Iowa Hawkeyes in the finals despite having five finalists, to the NCAA Tournament, Iowa State continually came up just short but brightness is on the horizon.

“I think it’s a great team, and I wouldn’t want to be on any other team,” said junior 149-pounder Mitch Mueller. “There are a lot of good wrestlers on this team, but I mean really, it’s just fight and attitude that we’ve been trying to work on a lot.”

Head coach Cael Sanderson throughout the whole season preached about the importance of winning a third consecutive Big 12 title and to take home the national championship. Things didn’t quite go as planned. The Cyclones tied Nebraska for the conference title and then could not take advantage of the many opportunities put in front of them at the NCAA championships.

“We didn’t finish the job. Our goal was to win a national title, but there are things we need to work on if we are going to achieve that,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson reflected back on the season a bit and said he has to “go back and reevaluate” what he’s doing as coach.

The future is bright as ever however, with all ten wrestlers returning to fuel another run at the elusive national title. Iowa State will most likely be the odds-on favorite to nab a fourth straight Big 12 crown, which only has been done by one other team (Oklahoma State won four straight from 2003-2006).

The services of defending national champion Jake Varner, as well as former and current all-American’s Nick Fanthorpe, Nick Gallick, Cyler Sanderson, Reader and David Zabriskie, make the team one of the deepest in the nation.

Iowa State will need to be on the top of its game with defending champion Iowa and runner-up Ohio State bringing back an arsenal of top-notch wrestlers as well. But improving at each weight and scoring as many bonus points in each match come tournament time could deliver the Cyclones their first national title since 1987.