WAVERLY - Appearances don't always tell the entire story.

Consider Homer Simpson's theory on barbecue sauce: "It looks like ketchup. It tastes like ketchup. But brother, it ain't ketchup."

Wartburg College's Jason Zastrow is frequently asked if he plays basketball for the Knights. At 6-foot-3, he fits the part.

"Actually, I get asked it pretty often," said Zastrow, the fourth-ranked wrestler in Division III at 174 pounds. "I've never played it. I don't think I'm coordinated enough.

"When you are 6-3, you'd be like a point guard. I'm definitely not coordinated enough to play point guard. I don't think it would've worked out very well for me as a basketball player."

Life hasn't always worked out perfectly for Zastrow, the wrestler, either. But a ton of perseverance is finally paying off for the Coon Rapids, Minn., native.

Zastrow was a solid performer at Blaine High School, where he was sixth in the state as a junior. It is what gave him aspirations to become a collegiate wrestler. Most of his high school coaches had ties with Augsburg College in Minneapolis, and that's where he envisioned continuing his wrestling career.

But his senior season ended in disastrous fashion. A last-second loss in a second-place match at his qualifier kept him from state. Then, things at Augsburg didn't work out. He had taken one other college visit, but it was three hours away.

"I grew up Augsburg," said Zastrow. "I came to Wartburg on a visit like in the middle of the season, and they were the only team to call me back after things didn't work out at Augsburg."

Luckily for the Knights, the midseason visit left an impression on Zastrow.

"I fell in love with the place on my visit," said Zastrow. "I didn't know if I wanted to be three hours away, but I could tell it was a place I would like."

Getting Zastrow to Waverly was the easy part for Wartburg's wrestling staff. Finding a spot for him in the lineup was a bigger challenge.

In a program that has won five national championships in a little more than a decade, finding talented wrestlers is not difficult. Successful wrestlers want to be at successful places. In those terms, the Knights rarely lack depth.

That was definitely the case for Zastrow, who found his path blocked by standouts such as Ryan and Mark Sturm, Akeem Carter and Scott Kauffman.

"One year he tried to make 165, but he just couldn't maintain it," recalled Wartburg head coach Jim Miller. "Another year, with his frame, we tried to get him as big as he could get, thinking he could be a heavyweight or at least a 197-pound wrestler, but we just couldn't get him big enough. I think he got up to 200 pounds, maybe."

For his part, Zastrow wasn't frustrated with his role for the Knights. He still loved being in Waverly and at Wartburg.

"It is an individual sport, so it wasn't like I wasn't able to wrestle," said Zastrow. "It is not like football. I did see some mat time. It was hard, but I figured I was going to get a shot sooner or later."

Although he sat out his second year at Wartburg, Zastrow's window of opportunity to crack the Knights' lineup was diminishing last winter when he came to a tough decision.

With eventual national runner-up Scott Kauffman manning the 174-pound slot and two-time defending national champion Akeem Carter at 184, Zastrow decided to leave Wartburg.

Eric Keller, now the Knights' top assistant, was in his first year as head coach at North Central College in Naperville, Ill., after spending several seasons as an assistant at Wartburg. His squad was in need of upper-weight help.

"I was talking to Mill-boy (Miller) about it early on about Jason possibly coming over," said Keller. "He wanted a chance to compete somewhere, and I don't blame him. We just communicated, and I pretty much left it up to him."

Zastrow packed up his bags, left his friends, including a girlfriend, and headed to Illinois.

"It was the toughest thing I've ever done because it is such a big family here," said Zastrow. "But I figured I'd regret it if I didn't do it. It was one thing I've always told myself, 'I'd never regret anything I ever did with wrestling.'"

Zastrow flourished in the Cardinals' lineup, but as the NCC's Division III national qualifier approached, he was banged up. He won his first match, but was limited by injuries in a semifinal match and lost.

It was a loss that left him hungry for the 2006-07 season.

Then Keller threw him a curveball. When Wartburg's former top assistant, Dave Malecek, left to become head coach at Wisconsin-LaCrosse, Miller asked Keller to return to Waverly. He didn't hesitate, and neither did Zastrow.

"I think it was the right decision, at the time, to transfer," said Zastrow. "Coming back, I know was the right decision."

It's worked out on both ends.

Zastrow finally has cracked the Knights' lineup and is thriving. With three victories at the Desert Duals in Las Vegas Tuesday, Zastrow is 16-2 on the season, and he's won three consecutive tournaments - the Coe Open, the Simpson Invitational and the Dick Walker Invitational.

But there is only one thing Zastrow wants out of his second chance with the Knights - a berth in the national tournament.

"It was a long off-season," said Zastrow. "I feel good. I don't think I've wrestled my best yet. But this is where I wanted to be the whole time, and I want to take full advantage of this opportunity."

His coaches want it for Zastrow, too.

"This guy is so much about perseverence," said Keller. "It is going to be such a storybook ending if he gets what he wants out of this thing. Not to say his college experience has been disappointing, but to this point he hasn't gotten what he's wanted out of the experience.

"For him to get what he wants at the end, I want that so bad for that guy."

Contact Jim Nelson at (319) 291-1521 or jim.nelson@wcfcourier.com