Despite not being heavily recruited while in high school, NIU wrestler Ben Heizer proved his worth by taking second place Saturday in the NCAA championships.

A senior, Heizer is only the third wrestler in the Huskies’ six decades of competing to make it to the championship match.

Heizer, a Texas native, lost in the finals of the 184-pound weight class to West Virginia’s Greg Jones 10-5.

“It’s not first place; I’m kind of disappointed,” Heizer said. “I felt I wrestled as hard as I could. He just wrestled a perfect match against me. He’s a great wrestler. Sunday I woke up thinking about things I could have done differently to have won the match.”

Jones had an unblemished 26-0 record this season. Heizer finished the year 30-2.

“Ben [Heizer] beat a national champ [Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State] earlier in the tournament,” NIU coach Dave Grant said. “This kid has only lost to one guy all year long. He dominated everyone else that he faced but this one guy.”

NIU’s Roy Conrad, (177 pounds), won his weight class in 1960. Johnny Johnson, (190 pounds), took second in 1973.

NIU has had 10 All-Americans in its history. Six of the 10 have come during the past eight years under Grant.

The Huskies have had at least one All-American in each of the last three years.

Assistant coach Scott Owen won the honor in 2002. Owen and Heizer were All-Americans last season, which Heizer duplicated this year.

“I think that it’s good because it shows that we are building champion wrestlers,” Grant said. “We’re still a young team. I thought this was going to be a rebuilding season, but we have kids that are going to surprise some people again next year.”

Heizer’s parents, who have attended all of his matches, were in St. Louis to see him in action.

“Ben has always excelled far and above what we have hoped for,” said Sam Heizer, Ben’s dad. “It’s very exciting to see what Ben has been doing. He just got married, and to be able to balance that with school and athletics is great. We couldn’t be prouder.”

In the semifinals in St. Louis, Ben defeated Jake Rosholt from Oklahoma State. Coming out of high school Ben wanted to go to Oklahoma State. OSU coach John Smith said Ben had not proven anything and wasn’t sure if Ben could close out matches, Sam said.

“When Ben wrestled Rosholt and stopped him in the semis, I had a little chuckle inside of me,” Sam said. “Ben stopped him dead in his tracks, and Smith wasn’t sure if Ben could close out matches. I was thinking to myself, ‘He just took out your top boy.’”

After back-to-back All-American seasons, Ben isn’t sure if he will continue his wrestling career up the Olympic ladder.

He will graduate at the end of this semester and then go to school in Davenport, Iowa, to become a chiropractor.

When asked about a comeback to the mat, Ben just laughed and said, “We’ll have to wait and see.”