Only one of Nick Gallick’s first 25 matches last year was against a ranked opponent.

In his sophomore season, Gallick will be tested early and often by elite competitors. Five of the 141-pounder’s next seven opponents are ranked in the top 15, including fourth-ranked Rider senior Don Fisch and fifth-ranked West Virginia junior Brandon Rader.

The 14th-ranked Gallick will wrestle both this weekend when the ISU wrestling team travels to the upper Northeast. The third-ranked Cyclones (1-0) will wrestle Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J., Friday before wrestling Clarion, Binghamton and West Virginia in Binghamton, N.Y., Sunday.

“I’m pretty excited,” Gallick said. “It will be a chance to see where I am, and I think it will help me out the rest of the year with my training, It’ll only make me better.”

Gallick wrestled at 133 pounds last season, but in the off-season moved up to his brother’s former weight class.

Nate Gallick, who won the 141-pound NCAA title in 2006, dominated the next three wrestlers Nick will face after Thanksgiving Break – ninth-ranked Manuel Rivera, 10th-ranked Alex Tsirtsis and 13th-ranked C.J. Ettelson. He majored or techfalled two meetings with each wrestler, with the exception of a 4-1 decision over Tsirtsis. Nate beat Rader, 3-0, in the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2006.

Nick is 3-1 on the season. His lone loss came to Northern Illinois’ Patrick McLemore, who he beat, 7-3, in his first match of the season. McLemore paid him back at Saturday’s Harold Nichols Cyclone Open.

“I got caught. There is nothing I can really do about that,” he said.

The Cyclones will face a combined 11 ranked opponents. Iowa State will be without the services of No. 1 Jake Varner (184) on Sunday, as he will be traveling to the NWCA All-Star Meet in Oregon.

That loss will magnify the difficulty of beating West Virginia, who brings six ranked wrestlers to the dual.

“There is always a potential [to lose],” said coach Cael Sanderson. “But that is not really an issue or a concern, you know. We are worrying about our guys making progress. With Varner being out that match, our guys are going to have to step up, and that’s good preparation for us.”

Redshirt freshman Mark Kist will make his first start this weekend at 125 pounds. He finished second at the Cyclone Open, ahead of true freshman Tyler Clark (third) and senior Ben Hanisch (sixth).

Senior Aron Scott (174) will wrestle his first match of the season this weekend. He has been cleared to wrestle after recovering from an injury. Scott wrestled at 149 pounds last season, but moved up three weight classes to contend for the starting job.

Chris Pursel (174) will likely move up a weight to fill in for Varner, Sanderson said.