As far as high school careers go, Nathan Boston’s is pretty tough to beat. The now Iowa State freshman racked up a record of 199-1 with three state championships. 

Most would be happy with 199-1, but Boston was not. That one loss still bothers him.

“I was 199-1 [in high school] so I would have been 200-0 if I would have beat him,” Boston said. “That one [loss] sticks with you.”

Boston got his shot at redemption at the Harold Nichols Open, as the two were finally faced off in a rematch, this time at the collegiate level, three years after the Boston’s lone loss occurred.

The rematch lived up to the hype and Boston got his redemption as he came away with a 3-2 win against Northwestern’s Stevan Micic.

“It felt amazing,” Boston said. “He was my one loss in high school so it felt pretty good to get a win against him. I’ve wanted this [rematch] for a while now.”

Boston would go on to a second place finish, as he suffered a 5-1 loss against Alan Waters of Missouri.

Still, both Boston and ISU coach Kevin Jackson were happy with Boston’s performance.

“The future is bright, man, the future is real bright when you talk about Nathan Boston getting to the finals against Waters, a kid that’s highly ranked in the country at 125,” Jackson said.

Waters is ranked #3 in the country at 125 according to InterMat.

Jackson also mentioned Dante Rodriguez, Daniel Woiwor and Marcus Harrington as reasons for optimism after their performances.

Rodriguez was alongside Boston as ISU’s two best finishers at the tournament as both took second place finishes. Rodriguez pinned his way to the finals before suffering an 8-7 loss in the championship.

Woiwor and Harrington took third at 157 and 197, respectively. Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer took fifth at 149 and Tyler Swope took sixth at 285.

Most of ISU’s starters didn’t compete at the event, giving Jackson a look at his second stringers and younger athletes.

“I think our depth at a few weight classes is really strong,” Jackson said, specifically mentioning the weight classes of 125, 141, 149, 165, 197 and 285. “We can still get a little bit stronger depth wise, but I’m confident if someone goes down we have someone who can step in, at least compete and give us a good chance to win.”

Jackson said the decision to bench the starters for the Harold Nichols open was so that the team would be fresh and healthy going into the first dual meets of the season next weekend.

“Our focus is to be 100 percent going into the season and that’s what we use this tournament for and that’s why we sat our starters,” Jackson said. “I do think our backups and our freshmen held us accountable, as far as their performances today. They represented us pretty well.”