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The 2003 Wabasha-Kellogg graduate and current senior wrestler for North Dakota State University will be one of the top seeds in the Western Regional Tournament on March 8.
Sanders, who is one of three wrestlers in Minnesota to win five high school state titles, has just one loss in the region and could be the No. 1 seed.
“He’s one of the top two wrestlers in our region,” NDSU coach Bucky Maughan said. “I think he has a good shot at winning it or getting second and having a chance at the wild card.”
Sanders, who wrestles at 133 pounds, is having the best season of his career this year at 21-11, including winning 10 in a row before suffering a loss last weekend. His career record is 72-51.
“It’s my senior year, so I want to do the best I can,” Sanders said. “There is nothing left. I have to make everything count.”
NDSU is hosting the regional. The six-team tournament will qualify 10 champions and 10 at-large wrestlers, who will head to the national tournament in St. Louis on March 20-22.
When Sanders went to college, North Dakota State was in transition, going from Division II to Division I. When a team does that, it is forced to forgo participating in national tournaments for at least two years, depending on the school and the sport.
Sanders was on the Division II national team and qualified for nationals his freshman year. He was also one match away from being all-American.
The next year, NDSU transferred to Division I and Sanders had to make a decision — wait two years to have a chance at the postseason or transfer.
“I didn’t want to leave,” he said.
So Sanders redshirted his sophomore year and wrestled knowing he couldn’t get to nationals the next season.
It proved to be a tough decision, because he ended up beating a wrestler that qualified for nationals his redshirt-sophomore season.
“I never really thought about it,” Sanders said. “I just wanted to prepare for the next year.”
Last season, Sanders came very close to making it to nationals at the Division I level.
“I lost a real close match to the guy who took second and qualified for nationals,” Sanders said. “I lost in the last 10-15 seconds. I was real close. It was disappointing but I look to change that this year.”
Sanders was ahead 3-2 in that match, according to his father, Ron Sanders, but got taken down in those final seconds to suffer the loss.
Sanders is one of three five-time state champions in Minnesota. His brother, Zach, who is redshirting this season at the University of Minnesota, is one of the other five-time state champs.
The two are also linked at W-K with a school record 223 wins. Eric, who went to state six times in high school, finished 223-26 at W-K — 18 of those losses came in seventh grade.
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