AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – The possibility of a national title proved to be a mirage Saturday night, but with an unlikely run at the NCAA Tournament, the ISU wrestling program served notice to the future.

The band of six freshmen and four seniors carried the Cyclones to a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships on Saturday night, finishing behind season-long favorite Minnesota in a meet not decided until the final two matches.

Trent Paulson (157) ended his collegiate career with a national championship and kept the door open for a team title in the championship round.

“We had a great tournament,” said ISU coach Cael Sanderson. “We wanted to have a greater tournament, you know, but coming in I think everybody wrestled above their seeds, for the most part, so we’re real happy.”

Heading into the final session, Iowa State trailed the Golden Gophers by 7.5 team points, but had Paulson, freshman Jake Varner (184) and senior Kurt Backes (197) wrestling for a national championship. Minnesota had dominant heavyweight Cole Konrad left to wrestle, who could and did secure the tournament with a pin over Penn State’s second-ranked Aaron Anspach.

Each victory would add an additional four team points to the team score with a possibility of bonus points.

The Cyclones could have won the tournament with two or three championships had Konrad lost or been held to a decision.

Varner and Backes, however, finished second. Travis Paulson (165) earned All-American honors for a third time, placing fifth.

The Golden Gophers broke a run of four straight NCAA Championships by Oklahoma State. Iowa State had its first top-five finish since 2002, when first-year coach Sanderson was a senior.

Sanderson was named the National Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

Trent Paulson ended his career as a champion in dramatic fashion, scoring two takedowns in the final period to beat Wisconsin’s Craig Henning, 6-5.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Paulson, who placed fourth in 2005 and 2006. “It’s a dream come true. I’ve been working for that moment all my life, and to get it, it’s just amazing.”

Backes, the ninth-seed of the tournament, had an excruciating, 6-4 overtime loss to American University’s second-seeded Josh Glenn to finish his Cyclone career. He had pinned the senior earlier this season.

Varner beat second-seeded Roger Kish of Minnesota with a takedown in overtime to earn a spot in the finals, but fell to Northwestern’s No. 1 Jake Herbert, 6-1, in the finals.

Freshmen Nick Fanthorpe (125), Cyler Sanderson (149) and David Zabriskie (HWT) all came one match short of earning All-American honors.

“I wish things would have went a little different, both individually and in the team race,” Fanthorpe said. “I wish I just could have contributed a little more. Our team wrestled well, our team wrestled really hard in this tournament, and you just gotta learn from it and take everything you can from it and be ready for it next year.”

The Cyclones qualified all 10 members of their lineup for the tournament, while Minnesota came in with only nine. Of those starters, however, the Golden Gophers brought six returning All-Americans.

Iowa State had six freshman and only three returning All-Americans. The Cyclones finished 13th at the NCAA Tournament last season.

“We’ll just build on this, we’ve a great future ahead of us,” Sanderson said.

“It’s just exciting. We’re going to just build and add to these freshmen that are coming through, and we are going to have some great teams in the future.”