The ISU wrestling team features a mix of seasoned veterans and new faces and coach Bobby Douglas hopes the two elements can combine for success.

The Cyclones are coming off a 19-4 dual season and a sixth place finish at the NCAA meet in Iowa City. Improvement in both areas is the mission entering the season, which begins Saturday at the Cyclone Open in Fort Dodge.

“Regardless if we’re an underdog or not, our goal is to win the national title and the conference title,” Douglas said. “We could be a real sleeper. We’ll start slow and try to build a competitive team by the national tournament. We’ve got to bring some people along real fast if we want to be as successful as we’d like to be.”

The Cyclones lost four national qualifiers but have five returning with the headliners being three-time NCAA champ Cael Sanderson and three-time All-American Joe Heskett.

Sanderson is 119-0 in his career, with 39 pins, and another perfect season wrapped up with an NCAA title would be historic. Sanderson is moving up to 197 pounds after competing three years at 184.

Taking Sanderson’s place at 184 will be Virginia Military Institute transfer Austen Porter. Porter, a junior, was an NCAA qualifier at VMI last season.

“We wanted to see who got the biggest out of the two and Cael did,” Douglas said. “We were in a pretty good situation to go with either or at 184 and 197.”

Heskett, who owns a career record of 104-8, returns for a final shot at an NCAA title which has barely eluded his grasp his first three seasons.

Heskett finished third as a freshman and lost in overtime to Wisconsin’s Donny Pritzlaff in the NCAA finals as a sophomore and junior.

“Any senior that has dreams of being a national champion has to be well focused and I think Joe is well focused,” Douglas said. “He came in saying that this is his last year and everything that he’s dreamed of is on the line. He’s going to focus on Joe this year and try and win a title and that’s fine with us.”

Other returning NCAA qualifiers are sophomore Zach Roberson and seniors Billy Maldonado and Mark Knauer. Roberson wrestled up a weight at 141 last year but will go down to a more comfortable 133-pound weight class this season.

Maldonado will stay at 149 while Knauer lost the wrestle-off at heavyweight but will be the top guy there. Wade Macleod beat Knauer in the wrestle-off but is battling several injuries.

“Those two [Maldonado and Knauer] are NCAA qualifiers and we expect them to wrestle up to their potential, which they have failed to do,” Douglas said. “Roberson will perform well at 133. He was a couple of pounds underweight every time he wrestled at 141 last year.”

BYU transfer Aaron Holker will move in to fill at 141. Holker, a junior, was an All-American for the Cougars, finishing seventh two years ago.

Another transfer will crack the starting lineup as former Nebraska Cornhusker Ty Malia will get the nod at 125. The Cyclones are counting on Malia, as he didn’t win a match at 125 in 23 dual meets last season.

“We have some transfers who need to step in and make a contribution,” Douglas said. “We’ve had some problems at 125 and I think Ty Malia will do the job for us.”

Rounding out the Cyclone lineup are junior college transfer Matt Veach at 157 and redshirt freshman Nick Passolono at 174.

While the attention will be on the familiar faces for the Cyclones, Sanderson thinks the newcomers can make an impact.

“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” Sanderson said. “We have a lot of new guys in our lineup but I think they’re going to do very well. I’m excited to go to our first match and see how they can do.”

Douglas points to 2000 NCAA team champion Minnesota as again the team to beat with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Iowa as the teams with the best chance to knock off the Golden Gophers.

The Hawks have defeated the Cyclones in 27 straight duals but lost five All-Americans, including three NCAA champs, to graduation. The two intrastate rivals square off Dec. 9 in Hilton Coliseum.

“We match up better with Iowa but our problem is we also lost a lot,” Douglas said. “I think it’ll be a very interesting and competitive dual meet. We hope we can turn the tables on them.”