When Nate Boston came to Iowa State in 2014, he came with a long list of accolades.

Boston was a High School Flo National Champion at his weight class. He won three state titles — one in Indiana and two in Kentucky — and didn’t lose a single match in his last two years in high school.

After redshirting his initial season at Iowa State, he was ready to wrestle at 125-pounds.

He was thrown into the fire in his first match on Nov. 7, 2014, wrestling against then-No. 2 Joey Dance of Virginia Tech. Boston dropped the match, 3-2, giving up 1:41 of riding time to Dance.

Boston didn’t wrestle again in competition for the Cyclones until last Sunday, 78 days after his Cyclone debut.

When he suited up for the Cyclones again, Boston was wrestling the No. 1 guy in his weight class, Dean Heil of Oklahoma State. But Heil is a 141-pound wrestler, meaning Boston had moved up two weight classes. 

Boston eventually fell to Heil, but he stayed right with him throughout the match. It was 2-0 with about 40 seconds left in the match. Heil got a takedown and rode out Boston to take the match, 5-0.

“We just weren’t getting what we expected out of the weight class at the time,” said coach Kevin Jackson. “We really felt like 141-pounds was a really strong weight for us coming into the season, and it hasn’t played out that way in a lot of matches. So we needed to throw Nate [Boston] in there because he’s available and he’s a competitor. It was exciting to see.”

Boston unexpectedly grew three inches during his redshirt year, throwing off his projected weight. Now, he walks around at about 145-pounds.

“I was having some weight issues and decided that I wasn’t able to focus on getting better at wrestling,” Boston said. “I was just focusing on cutting weight every week. And for me, I thought, ‘I want to get better.’”

ISU wrestling has an All-American at 133-pounds in Earl Hall so moving him up one weight class wasn’t an option.

“At first I thought maybe Boston needed to suck it up and go at 125-pounds,” said Hall.

However, Boston went to his coaches and expressed a desire to move up two weight classes and wrestle at 141-pounds. The coaches liked the idea, and assistant Trent Paulson led the charge.

“We talked for a while, then they were like, ‘Hey, we are going to let you wrestle against Oklahoma State,’” Boston said.

Boston wasn’t going to shy away from the No. 1 guy at 141-pounds.

“Might as well start with the best,” Boston thought to himself. “It only goes down from there.”

Jackson said he was impressed with Boston’s match against Heil and hopes some of the younger guys will learn from Boston. 

“It’s great to have anybody, in any weight class, that’s ready to take on the challenge and go out there and compete to their ability and fight as hard as they can for as long as they can,” Jackson said. “No matter who the person is and no matter what the situation is.

“His last match he wrestled was at 125 but then the next match he wrestled was against the best-ranked guy in the country in a hostile environment and he went out and fought his tail off.”

Boston is expected to finish the season at 141-pounds for the Cyclones even though he’s not a true 141-pounder, yet. He said he expects to wrestle at 141-pounds next season, too, after getting a summer to get stronger.

“At first I thought he looked kind of chunky out there, but he looks like he fits the weight class, he didn’t look too bad,” Hall said. “He wrestled a good match and I’m proud of him for that.”

Since he doesn’t look too “chunky” at his new weight, he no longer has to worry about cutting 20 pounds. He’ll be able to focus on getting better and stronger.

“I have four years to get better — to win a national title,” Boston said.