With a 2-0 record to start the season, the No. 6 ISU wrestling team will have its first test of the year against Lehigh at 7 p.m. Friday in Bethlehem, Pa.

Iowa State will also face Millersville Friday night and return to Fort Dodge Saturday for the Harold Nichols Open.

Some of the Cyclone freshmen gained valuable experience against Minnesota State-Mankato and Boston last weekend, but they will have to prove themselves again against the No. 3 Mountain Hawks.

“[Lehigh is] a great team,” said head coach Bobby Douglas. “They deserve to be ranked where they are. They’re very experienced. They’re probably favored in seven of 10 matches [this meet].”

Douglas said last Friday’s meets were a good way to start the season. He said two wins are important to start the season and keep the team motivated to succeed.

“I wasn’t impressed, but I was happy” with the meets against Minnesota State-Mankato and Boston, he said. “We found out some areas of concern. We also saw a lot of inexperience and a lot of mistakes.”

Lehigh returns three All-Americans from last year’s team. Derek Zinck, a 157 pounder, Troy Letters, a 165 pounder, and Brad Dillon at 174 pounds are the team’s returning leaders. As a freshman last year, Letters finished second at the NCAA Tournament at 165 pounds. He is currently ranked No. 1.

Cyclone wrestlers said they are looking forward to the challenge this weekend.

“If we beat Lehigh, it will be a great confidence builder,” senior Zach Roberson said. “It would give us a lot of momentum going into [the Iowa meet].”

Roberson, a two-time all-American, said the inexperience of the team has forced him into a leadership role.

“Coach has been talking about how people need to step up and be leaders,” he said. “I just wanted to be one.”

Freshman 149-pounder Trent Paulson said he was happy he was able to pin his first opponent but had mixed feelings about his overall performance in the meets last week.

“I was pretty happy,” Paulson said. “I always felt I could come out and [pin my opponent]. It was a nice way to start the season but I wasn’t too happy about my second match [a 14-2 major decision over Boston’s Justin Blumenthal]. I came out flat and I know I can do better.”

Paulson will have to wrestle better this week against Lehigh’s Tommy Rohn. Rohn, a junior, is ranked 13th in the country. More than the ranking, his experience could give him an advantage over Paulson.

Travis Paulson will have to wrestle the third-ranked Zinck at 157 pounds, and Kurt Backes will wrestle a familiar opponent in sixth-ranked Travis Frick.

Backes said he wrestled with some of the Lehigh wrestlers in high school and wrestled Frick this summer and won his match.

“I beat him once, I’ll beat him again,” Backes said.

Backes also said that this week’s practices have been the toughest so far this season. He said the team is getting in better shape and it will help make the team more competitive later in the season.

“We worked really hard this week,” he said. “Douglas knows when to push us hard and he knows when to back off. He’s a smart man.

“Monday and Tuesday we [worked really hard], [Wednesday] we slowed down a little bit and tomorrow’s a traveling day. He knows how to get our team ready for an important match.”

Roberson also felt the intense training was beneficial for the team.

“It helped us make great strides in our conditioning,” he said. “I think we need to push each other a lot more in practice. Practicing hard is definitely going to help us.”

Roberson said all Iowa State’s young wrestlers will have to keep improving and wrestling hard if the team is going to be successful.

“Our young guys are wrestling well,” he said. “As long as they keep doing that, we’ll get better and better.”