ALBANY, N.Y. — Perfection.

Iowa State 197-pounder Cael Sanderson finished his four-year career on Saturday at the NCAA Championships in Albany, N.Y. with an unprecedented career record of 159-0.

Sanderson became the first wrestler in history to go undefeated in fours years of competition.

Sanderson met Lehigh's John Trenge at the 197-pound finals on Saturday, the third meeting of the season. Sanderson beat Trenge earlier in the year at the Midlands Championships, 16-5, and again in a closer match at the NCWA all-star classic 6-1.

Following the semifinals, Trenge knew that defeating Sanderson was almost impossible but was not going to hold anything back and tried to be optimistic.

"I expect to leave everything on the mat," Trenge said Friday night. "I expect to be fully content with my performance afterwards. If not, hey, I still got two more years. But I plan on all my hard work paying off."

Sanderson got off to a quick start when he got a double leg takedown of Trenge, and continued to turn the Lehigh sophomore over to register three near points. Sanderson sustained his ability to score by notching two more takedowns and a reversal in the match en route to a 12-4 major decision.

With the victory, Sanderson joined Oklahoma State's Pat Smith as the only other wrestlers to win four national championships. Sanderson became the first wrestler to win four Most Outstanding Wrestler awards.

Sanderson was greeted by a standing ovation that lasted for five minutes following the end of his match with Trenge.

"It meant a lot to have people support and appreciate me," Sanderson said. "Four years is a long time, 100 or however many matches, that's a lot of matches to be ready for. To be finally finished with it, it's nice."

The past week heading into the national tournament has been a real emotional time for Sanderson. Walking to the mat for the very last time as a Cyclone was a very difficult feat for Sanderson.

"I can't really describe my emotions," the Utah native said. "This was a real emotional tournament for me. Walking out there, it was hard and I looked at the Iowa State fans and I almost started crying. I tried to keep things in perspective."

In the five matches it took Sanderson to win the national championship, he recorded two falls, a technical fall and two major decisions. Sanderson pinned Clarion's Eric Mausser in 3:32 seconds, in the first round. In the second round Sanderson pinned Buffalo's Kyle Cerminara with 27 seconds remaining in the match.

In the quarterfinals he put on a takedown clinic recording nine takedowns, and scored near fall points and a reversal. Northern Iowa's Jason Payne was Sanderson's victim, losing in a match termination 23-8, at 6:51.

In the semifinal match, Ohio State's Nick Preston came out with a flurry of offense and almost recorded a takedown, but Sanderson was able to fight it off. In similar fashion to his quarterfinal match, Sanderson put on another takedown clinic. This time Sanderson tallied one fewer takedowns for a total of eight. When it was over, Preston lost by major decision, 18-7.

With his collegiate wrestling career ending, Sanderson is going to try and relax for a while, but still has many goals that he is working toward attaining.

Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas can see how Sanderson has revolutionized the sport of wrestling but he can't totally appreciate Sanderson's accomplishment yet.

"I think this is a defining moment in wrestling," Douglas said. "Wrestling has been like the invisible sport and Cael has lit a fire with the media with his performance. His accomplishments, I can't really appreciate it now, I probably won't be able to until I get home and relax and have a couple of beers. I don't think we realize what this accomplishment means."