Four years after completing his undefeated college wrestling career, Cael Sanderson is still putting Iowa State on the map.

In 2002, Sanderson notched the final victory of his 159-0 college career by capturing his fourth title at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, a win which was recently named one of the “25 Most Defining Moments in NCAA History” by a panel including college presidents, athletic directors and student athletes.

“It’s definitely a great honor,” Sanderson said. “I’m happy that they included me and the university and the program. I think we have a lot of tradition and it just makes sense.”

ISU wrestling coach Bobby Douglas had high praise for his most prestigious pupil.

“Obviously, it’s one of the most amazing performances in NCAA history,” Douglas said. “Wrestling is the most difficult of all competitive sports and to be able to accomplish what Cael has accomplished in the short period of time that he competed can only be described as amazing.”

The announcement of Sanderson’s defining moment is only the most recent in a long list of accolades. At each stage of his career, Sanderson has been an ambassador of Iowa State, student athletes and the entire sport.

“You couldn’t have a better representative than Cael Sanderson,” Douglas said. “He handles it with grace, with dignity and with the type of attitude you’d like to see in any athlete.”

Now the associate coach for the wrestling team, Sanderson said representing Iowa State to the rest of the world never changed his focus from being the best person, athlete or coach he could and the university gave him the opportunity to succeed in that goal.

“Iowa State really provides the tools for everything you need to be successful if you just take advantage of what’s here,” he said. “There’s obviously a publicity associated with [the list] and when people see that something from Iowa State is one of the 25 defining moments, that’s good PR.”

Senior wrestlers Nate Gallick and Jesse Sundell were redshirting as Sanderson entered his senior campaign, looking to become the first undefeated, four-time NCAA champion.

“It was inspiring to be in the same room as him,” Gallick said. “Being able to watch how much support there was from the press and the fans and the college for Cael and for Iowa State wrestling, it was motivating for me to see that.”

Although Gallick and Sundell watched Sanderson make NCAA history from the sidelines, current freshman wrestler Joey Demarie was watching the matches from the seats of Hilton Coliseum.

“I was here for his last home meet and it was ridiculous,” Demarie said. “I remember it looked so effortless dominating these guys that just trained all the time trying to beat him.”

Until moving to Ames in 1999, Demarie said he had never wrestled before. The next year he started wrestling for Ames Middle School, motivated by Sanderson and the rest of the Cyclones.

The ESPNU and ESPN Classic television networks are featuring each of the 25 defining moments in the form of 30-second vignettes, which will be aired over the next two months.

Moments such as Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass to defeat Miami in 1984 and Texas Western’s storybook basketball title in 1966 stand out as some of sports’ greatest, but Sanderson’s accomplishment displays an amount of dedication and commitment unlike the others.

“Some of the other vignettes are about teams that went undefeated for one season but for four years, nobody beat him and nobody came really close to him,” Demarie said. “He had 159 wins, that’s 159 matches that he never felt sick, he never made one critical mistake, he never got pinned.”

Although the 25 events are left unranked in relation to each other, the Iowa State wrestlers are unanimous on where Sanderson would place.

“He’s deserving of being the top defining moment in college for what he’s done,” Sundell said. “If you want your child to grow up to be someone, he’s the perfect role model.”