Cyler, the youngest brother in the most famous wrestling family from Utah, had a difficult decision to make. Would he stay at Iowa State, where he was a three-time NCAA qualifier and All-American? Or would he follow his older brothers, Cael and Cody, to Penn State?
Cyler Sanderson"It was kind of hard because I had been at Iowa State for four years," said Cyler. "But he's my brother, so I was going to follow him wherever he went. As soon as he announced that he was coming to Penn State, I knew that I was coming too."
Cyler came to Iowa State in 2005 as part of the nation's top recruiting class, a class that also included Nick Fanthorpe, Nick Gallick, Mitch Mueller, Jake Varner, and David Zabriskie. The Cyclones have finished as high as second in the country since that recruiting class arrived at Iowa State ... but they have yet to win an NCAA team title. Had Cyler stayed at Iowa State, the Cyclones would have returned six All-Americans. Still, with five All-American returning, the Cyclones are expected to challenge for the NCAA team title in Omaha.
Despite leaving his friends and teammates, Cyler says there are no hard feelings.
"All of those guys are great guys," said Cyler. "They are all first class. They are all great friends of mine. They all understood the situation. I know that any of them would have gone with their brother too. A lot of them expressed that to me. There haven't been any hard feelings. I keep in contact with most of them on a regular basis. We ask each other how things are going. They are great friends of mine and they will always will be great friends of mine."
Cyler Sanderson finished runner-up at the 2008 Midlands in December, but struggled at the end of last season and failed to place at the 2009 NCAA Championships in March (Photo/BuckeyeWrestling.com)"Wrestling was tough last year for me for a few reasons," said Cyler. "I was just real stressed. I didn't really show the improvements that I had made. I had made a lot of improvements. I had gotten a lot better in certain areas. However, I obviously didn't show it on the mat. I didn't perform up to my ability."
The hiring of Cyler's brother, Cael, a wrestling icon, has re-energized a Penn State wrestling program starving to get to the top of the college wrestling world. Penn State has a rich wrestling tradition, but has struggled to consistently remain in the upper echelon of college wrestling programs in recent years. Penn State won an NCAA team title in 1953 and remains the last Eastern school to accomplish the feat. Penn State earned a trophy at the NCAA Championships in 2008, finishing in third place, but fell back to 10th place last season.
Cyler is excited about his new environment and all that is happening at Penn State.
Cyler Sanderson left his friends and teammates at Iowa State and chose to follow his older brother, Cael (right), to Penn State for his final season of collegiate wrestling (Photo/BuckeyeWrestling.com)Cael and his staff have been hitting the recruiting trail hard since arriving in April. Penn State has already received verbal commitments from four InterMat top 50 recruits from the Class of 2010; all four are Pennsylvania natives, including the Alton twins, Andrew and Dylan, who are ranked No. 2 and No. 5 respectively. In addition, Cael and his staff signed two InterMat top 10 recruits from the Class of 2009, David Taylor and Jake Kemerer, who originally committed elsewhere but signed with Penn State after Cael was hired.
Taylor, a four-time Ohio state champion who won everything under the sun as a high school wrestler, was InterMat's No. 1 recruit from the Class of 2009. Taylor has known the Sanderson family since he was a young wrestler in Wyoming (before moving to Ohio), when he would make the hour-and-ten-minute trek from his home in Wyoming to Heber City, Utah to get coached by Steve Sanderson, the father of Cyler, Cael, Cole, and Cody.
Cael Sanderson (Photo/Tech-Fall.com)"He has a great future," said Cyler. "He's a very talented athlete, obviously. He has won everything that you could win. He's working hard. He's making improvements. He's getting better in the areas that he needs to get better in. He's going to do well. He just needs to not get frustrated and enjoy himself ... and he's going to be a great college wrestler."
Cyler knows a thing or two about great college wrestlers ... having grown up watching his older brother, Cael, finish his collegiate wrestling career at Iowa State with an unblemished 159-0 record and four NCAA titles. Cael then went on to win a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, before retiring from competition.
"Cael is the greatest college wrestler ever," said Cyler. "I think he had the potential to be the greatest international wrestler ever. He's so good and he never stops getting better. He's so much better than he was in 2004. Every time he goes in the room, he works out with anybody on the team and he's continually getting better. He would have won another Olympic title. The guy that won the last Olympics in his weight, Cael beat him badly. Cael was just a baby in 2004, really, in international wrestling. He didn't have hardly any experience. I don't think there are any limits on what he could have accomplished. He's just that good. Sometimes I wish he would have kept going, but he made the decision on what he wanted to do."
Cyler Sanderson cheered Cael on at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece"I think what it came down to when he made the decision whether he was going to train or not was that he made a commitment to be a coach at Iowa State," said Cyler. "He knew that being a coach at Iowa State wouldn't really allow him to train and give everybody the time they needed. He really sacrificed his own career to help the guys at Iowa State. He could have been selfish and trained all he wanted, but he chose to help us instead."
Now Cael will help a Penn State team that has five All-Americans on its roster -- Frank Molinaro (141), Bubba Jenkins (149), Dan Vallimont (165), Quentin Wright (174), and Cyler (157). But it remains to be seen whether all five All-Americans will be the lineup this season. There has been speculation that Jenkins and Wright may redshirt this season. Cyler admits that he's not sure what the lineup will look like this season. For now, he's just taking full advantage of the abundance of workout partners around his weight.
"I'm so excited for this year because I have so much to gain because of all the workout partners and all the people that I have here," said Cyler. "I'm going to be able to learn a lot from all of them and hopefully I can make a lot of improvements this year."
Cyler Sanderson hopes to win a national title in college before he begins his international wrestling career (Photo/BuckeyeWrestling.com)But before he sets his sights on his international wrestling career, Cyler is focused on the upcoming season and accomplishing his collegiate wrestling goals.
"My goal is to be a national champion and do my very best," said Cyler. "That's my goal. I want to be a national champion more than anything. That's what I'm going to focus on every day. But more than winning and losing, wrestling to my potential and having a lot of fun is really what I want to try to do my senior year. Just not have any regrets. Leave everything on the mat every single match. I know that if I do that, I won't have any regrets."
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