The timing was right, and Cael Sanderson wasn’t forced to take time off this weekend from his new job.

Sanderson’s wife, Kelly, gave birth to a healthy baby boy last Saturday, allowing the first-year wrestling coach to take the bench in this weekend’s Big 12 showdown with second-ranked Missouri.

The couple welcomed a 21-inch, seven-pound, eight-ounce first-born child – Tate – into the world almost a full week before the Thursday due date.

Sanderson said he was hoping to be able fulfill his responsibilities as coach in a critical weekend for the team. If the birthday would have been later, however, his responsibilities as a father and husband would have taken priority.

“There are few things that are more important than wrestling,” Sanderson said. “This was one.”

The third-ranked ISU wrestling team could complete its first undefeated conference season since 1993 on Sunday, which was former coach Bobby Douglas’ first season.

The Cyclones (9-3, 3-0 Big 12) host Rider (9-6) in Hilton Coliseum on Friday night before traveling to face the Missouri Tigers (10-1, 3-0) on Sunday afternoon to determine the conference’s best regular-season team.

Missouri is in the midst of the best season in the history of its program. The Tigers were ranked at No. 1 in the country before being edged by now-top-ranked Minnesota.

Iowa State will contend with five Missouri wrestlers ranked in the top five, including the top-ranked Askren brothers, senior Ben Askren (174) and freshman Max Askren (197).

“We have Rider coming in here first on Friday,” Sanderson said. “They’ve always got some tough kids; they’ve got some ranked kids. It’s our last match for our seniors here in Ames, so we’re kind of looking there, but we’ve definitely got our eye on Missouri.”

Tenth-ranked ISU senior Kurt Backes (19-4) will meet up with the younger Askren (24-0) in one of the most anticipated bouts of the weekend. He said Iowa State matches up better with Missouri than the top-ranked Gophers.

“He’s beaten some good guys, but it doesn’t matter,” Backes said. “We had two tough weeks to prepare [since wrestling Oklahoma State]. We’re ready from top to bottom.”

Ben Askren, the 2006 Dan Hodge Trophy winner and 174-pound NCAA champion, is widely regarded as the best wrestler in collegiate wrestling, and is currently is 30-0 on the year.

Cyclone senior Grant Turner (9-12) is looking to break a five-match losing streak on Friday night against Riders’ 15th-ranked Doug Umbehauer before facing Ben Askren. He has been struggling through a month-long stretch of ranked wrestlers.

Turner said he is going to wrestle his match against Askren to hopefully “shock the world.”

As did Sanderson, Turner pointed out that accomplishments in March outweigh accomplishments in February.

“The Big 12 Tournament is where all of it is going to have to go down,” Turner said. “Hopefully we can use [the Missouri dual] to build momentum going into the conference tournament and use all of our confidence to win the Big 12 conference title in the tournament setting and get 10 guys to nationals. That’s what our ultimate goal is.”