Attracting new fans is a main goal of this weekend’s “Beauty and the Beast” meet, where both the ISU wrestling and gymnastics teams will compete in Hilton Coliseum against Minnesota.

Wrestling coach Cael Sanderson said there’s one good way to get those fans to come back next year.

“We have to entertain them while they’re there,” Sanderson said.

“It’s real simple — they’ve got to have fun, and they’ve got to see a team they’re proud of and they want to get behind.”

The third-ranked Iowa State wrestling team will need a strong performance to overcome two opponents this weekend. Friday night will be the last time this season that the Cyclones (13-3) will wrestle home.

No. 12 Minnesota (14-7) is young and talented, but the regular-season finale at No. 4 Nebraska (17-2-1) looms large on Sunday.

After beating the Cornhuskers by one point at National Duals on Jan. 11, the Cyclones may automatically give up six points via forfeit. Junior All-American Nick Fanthorpe (133) strained his leg on Jan. 23 against Oklahoma and has missed the team’s last four duals.

Iowa State has three true freshman reserves at 125- and 133-pounds, but Sanderson isn’t willing to withdraw their redshirt, though he said it’s tempting. He said that injuries can be “funny, especially muscle-type injuries,” but that Fanthorpe was ready to wrestle in last Sunday’s 18-15 loss to No. 5 Missouri.

Sanderson told Fanthorpe that he wouldn’t wrestle after he shook hands with his opponent before the meet, though the third-year coach never planned on putting him on the mat.

“He planned on wrestling yesterday,” Sanderson said. “It’s just there was no reason to, other than winning a dual meet. And as a coach, you’re always tempted to take those risks, but that’s not one that I’m willing to take.”

Sanderson said the seventh-ranked junior was “99 percent” healthy, and that forcing Fanthorpe to believe that he would wrestle helped sharpen him mentally.

“We’ve got to do what’s in the best interest of our team. I want to win everything. I do. I hate losing; I can’t stand losing,” Sanderson said. “But even more important than that — and the same thing I’ve been saying from the first day I got here — I’m more interested in how these guys compete.”

Sanderson said the team needed to pick up the slack left by Fanthorpe’s absence.

“And we didn’t quite do that, not at all of our weight classes,” Sanderson said.

“We had chances to win, I mean, there was no reason we shouldn’t have won without Fanthorpe.”

A key decision in the loss was a 4-3 upset by Missouri’s 10th-ranked Marcus Hoehn (141) over third-ranked Nick Gallick .

The winning point was awarded in sudden death-overtime with 10 seconds remaining, when Gallick was penalized for stalling. The Cyclone junior received his stalling warning with 11 seconds left in the third period.

When asked if there is a worse way to lose, Sanderson said that he couldn’t think of one, though he didn’t disagree with the call.

“I asked the official what the call was, because I wanted to hear how he was calling it, just for future references, but you couldn’t argue it,” Sanderson said.

“It wasn’t a bad call. It’s not called like that very often, but it wasn’t a bad call. I mean, if our guys are stalling, call us for stalling.”

Minnesota likely will start seven underclassmen tonight, but several ISU wrestlers are expecting a challenge from a perennially-tough program.

The Gophers have five wrestlers ranked in the top 20, including seventh-ranked Zach Sanders (125), fifth-ranked Jayson Ness (133) and seventh-ranked Mike Thorn (141).

“They’re always a tough team, even though they aren’t as great of a team as they have been in the past,” said junior heavyweight David Zabriskie, who moved into the No. 1 ranking for the first time in his career this week. “They have a team that’s going to fight you hard, whether they are highly ranked or not, they’re going to fight you the whole time. At least try to fight you the whole time.”

Zabriskie (26-2) will square off against Minnesota’s 17th-ranked sophomore Ben Berhow (23-6) on Friday. He will also get a rematch against Nebraska freshman Tucker Lane (24-10), who beat Zabriskie, 7-6, in early January.

“I’m just going to try to keep my pace up, try to stay out of the overtime periods and just try to distance myself from these guys now,” said Zabriskie, who has had eight matches go to overtime. “I’ve wrestled ‘em both before. Hopefully I don’t spot anybody five points again.”

Lane scored a reversal 25 seconds into the second period of that match earlier this season, then caught Zabriskie for a three-point near fall to go ahead, 7-6, with 2:47 left in the match.

Iowa State built a 17-0 lead after the first four matches, but the strength of Nebraska’s lineup lies in the upper weights. All six Cornhuskers from the 157-pound to the heavyweight weight classes are ranked 15th or better.

Four NU wrestlers are ranked sixth or better: third-ranked Jordan Burroughs (157), sixth-ranked Stephen Dwyer (165), third-ranked Brandon Browne (174) and second-ranked Craig Brester (197).

No. 1 ranked Jake Varner – who beat Brester, 10-3, in January – said that the Cyclones are better prepared to face the Cornhuskers than they were before.

“It seems longer [than five weeks ago],” Varner said of the last time the two teams wrestled. “They’re a tough team, they’ve got a lot of tough guys… I just think we’ve improved since then. Each week, each day we’ve improved.”