ISU wrestler Joe Heskett has been close in his two previous attempts to win a national title. This season, Heskett is hoping the third time will be the charm.

Heskett enters his junior season as a two-time all-American after two strikingly different years on the mat, in which he has totaled a record 68-4 with 27 falls.

As a freshman, Heskett made a quick impact, going 38-1 with a third place finish at nationals. His lone loss came to Steve Blackford of Arizona State by a 3-2 double overtime decision.

Last season, Heskett returned to 165 and went after a national title but struggled with injury throughout the season.

Heskett qualified for nationals and made it all the way to the finals before dropping a 4-2 overtime decision to Wisconsin’s Don Pritzlaff.

“I feel real good going into the season and I’m going to try my best to win my national title this year,” Heskett said. “I feel confident and a lot of that confidence is based on my health. Being off the mat last year, being off my home for a while, was hard to really get a grip on. This year is a new year and I plan on staying healthy and everything will fall into place.”

Heskett came back from his early season injury a different wrestler as he struggled with fatigue late in matches.

“I’d say that missing a month of the season didn’t help me in some important areas like conditioning,” Heskett said. “When you’re in great shape, you’re confident, you’re confident in the third period. I wanted to be confident but I was tired a lot of the time.”

After his health played a factor in Heskett being denied a national title last season, being in top shape when practice started was a major focus during the off-season.

“My biggest concern and my biggest priority is staying healthy, and I feel confident in my abilities and work ethic,” Heskett said.

“Most of my training was cross training, lots and lots of running. Everyday I was running several miles, sprinting and lifting to keep in shape. Through that I came back to our pre-season ready to go.”

Heskett got his season off to a strong start with a title at the Harold Nichols Open last weekend. Two weeks ago, Heskett won his bracket at the Sunkist Kids International Wrestling Open in Phoenix.

At the Sunkist tournament, Heskett won by technical fall in his first two matches before collecting a pin in the semifinals. In the championship match, Heskett won a 3-0 decision to take top honors at 167.5 pounds.

“Last week at Sunkist, I felt really good and hopefully that carries over to the year,” Heskett said. “Each tournament I’m going to progress and be at the top of my game.”

This season, Heskett earned a team captain spot and likes the responsibility that comes with it.

“You have a lot of younger guys looking up to you and it’s a serious role to take,” Heskett said. “You want to get everybody on the same page, you want to work hard, and you want to win. That all plays a part in the role of captain.”

“Working hard, this team doesn’t have a problem with that,” Heskett said. “Everybody is out for the same goal and if anybody’s slacking, they’ll get yelled at by 15 or 16 guys and I think they’d rather work hard than get punished by 15 or 16 other guys.”