Sanderson goes one-up on Gable
January 8, 2001
ISU wrestler Cael Sanderson added another honor to his impressive resume at the Lone Star Duals in Dallas Saturday.Junior Sanderson earned three wins at 184 to raise his career record to 99-0, breaking Dan Gable’s national collegiate record of 98 consecutive wins. Gable won 98 matches in a row from 1967-70 before losing in the NCAA championship match his senior year.Sanderson, nationally ranked No. 1 at 184, wasted little time passing Gable while pinning Fresno State’s Jason Rossotti in 35 seconds, his fastest career pin. Earlier in the day, Sanderson rolled to a technical fall win over Harvard’s Francis Volpe and defeated Wisconsin’s Ralph DeNisco, 18-6.”It’s pretty exciting,” Sanderson said at Friday’s press conference. “I don’t think I’ve really sat down and thought about it. The only time I talk about it is with the media, thinking about what I’m going to say.”In his first two seasons, Sanderson has won a pair of NCAA titles in a dominating fashion, winning the Outstanding Wrestler Award twice. He also became the first non-senior to win the Dan Hodge Award prior to the start of this season.Sanderson is 20-0 this season, and 19 of his wins have come by fall, major decision or technical fall.Along with Sanderson’s victories, the rest of the Cyclones had a successful day as well.The fourth-ranked Cyclones defeated Harvard 29-7, No. 18 Wisconsin 30-9 and No. 23 Fresno State 30-15.The three-dual wins gave ISU Wrestling Coach Bobby Douglas his 350th career win. Douglas sports a career record of 350-130-9 in his 28-year coaching career. Zach Roberson (141), Billy Maldonado (149), Cole Sanderson (157), Perry Parks (174) and Zach Thompson (197) went undefeated.Top-ranked Joe Heskett only wrestled once at 165, and suffered his first defeat of the season. Heskett fell 10-8 in overtime to Harvard’s Patrick O’Donnell to fall to 18-1.