A couple of familiar faces led the ISU wrestling team to a

second-place

finish in the Midlands Wrestling Championships in Evanston, Ill.

Sunday.

Cael Sanderson won his fourth Midlands title and Joe Heskett

took

his

third crown as the Cyclones finished behind Iowa, which had 151

points,

in

the two-day event. Iowa State racked up 126.5 points and

Minnesota took

third place with 110.5 points.

“I’m sure people didn’t expect us to do as well as we did,” ISU

head

coach Bobby Douglas said. “We didn’t focus on this tournament,

but we

wrestled extremely well. We had some agonizing losses and

some great

victories.”

Sanderson earned tournament outstanding wrestler honors for

the

second

time. He won his first title at 197 pounds, beating former Iowa

wrestler and

1997 NCAA champion Lee Fullhart, now of Team Excel, 5-3.

The unbeaten Cyclone had a pair of takedowns and an escape

to down

the

tournament’s second seed.

“Fullhart showed me what I need to do,” Sanderson said. “I

need to

pick

things up. I didn’t wrestle my style of match.”

Sanderson’s previous three titles were at 184 pounds. He

moved up

to

197 this year.

Sanderson also joined legendary former ISU wrestler Dan

Gable as

the

only Cyclone with 20 wins at the Midlands tournament with his

victory

in a

semifinal match over Lehigh’s Jon Trenge. His win over Fullhart

does

not

count on his collegiate record, which is at 137-0, because Fullhart

is

a

post-collegiate competitor.

Heskett secured his third Midlands individual title at 165

pounds,

scoring a takedown and a pair of escapes in a 4-2 win over

Illinois’

Matt

Lackey. Heskett is 123-8 in his career and ninth on Iowa State’s

all-time

wins chart tied with Steve Hamilton (1989-92.)

“I felt real good and my conditioning is strong,” he said. “I know

what

I have to do to dominate my opponent. We had a very good

performance as

a

team. I think we surprised some people.”

Other Cyclones included Ty Malia, who finished fourth at 125

pounds.

Zach Roberson was forced to declare a medical default for sixth

place

at 133

pounds. Aaron Holker finished in fifth place at 141 pounds, as did

Billy

Maldonado at 149.

Austin Palmer lost to Cornell’s Clint Wattenberg, 4-2, for sixth

place

at 184 pounds.

Iowa State is back in action when it hosts the Northern Iowa

Panthers

at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 6 at 2 p.m.

Information and quotes from www.cyclones.com are used in this

article.