AMES – No. 15 Iowa State is set to take on Arizona State during senior night at Hilton Coliseum at 7 p.m. Friday.
“It’s going to be a good night to send them out,” Iowa State assistant coach Brent Metcalf said. “Unfortunately, none of them are going to be able to wrestle, for a variety of reasons. Anytime you get to honor a group of seniors is special.”
Iowa State will have its hands full at the bookends of the match but should be in control of most of the other weight classes.
At 125 pounds, Arizona State will trot out No. 2 Richard Figueroa to face off against unranked sophomore Ethan Perryman. Figueroa has only one loss on the season, but has only wrestled eight times.
No. 15 125-pound senior Kysen Terukina has been dealing with an injury as of late and is not expected to make his return this weekend, according to Metcalf. Metcalf is certain that he will return between this weekend and the Big 12 tournament.
At heavyweight, freshman Daniel Herrera continues his stretch of tough opponents with Arizona State’s No. 5 Cohlton Schultz.
“When you’re young like that, you just gotta come out and scrap and compete to the best of your ability,” Iowa State assistant coach Derek St. John said. “He’s probably outmatched in that situation, but as long as you show up and put your toe on that line, you can’t ask for a whole lot more as a coach.”
Iowa State announced that they will be medically redshirting senior Anthony Echemendia this past week.
“If [Echemendia] had gone in against Oklahoma State, he would have had no redshirt option,” Metcalf said.
The Cyclones have four top-10 wrestlers at four straight weight classes, so they will be riding that strength in this matchup.
At 133 and 141, sophomore twins Evan and Jacob Frost will look to continue their tear against opponents. Jacob is coming off a win against a top-five wrestler and being named Big 12 wrestler of the week.
“Jacob [Frost] is a good example of a guy who had a few early lumps in the season, but kind of stayed with it and obviously ended up knocking off the fourth guy in the country,” Metcalf said.
Following those weights is the red-hot redshirt sophomore in No. 7 149-pounder Paniro Johnson. Johnson has not lost a single match at 149 this season, bolstering an 8-0 record.
“It’s been cool following them up,” Johnson said. “It’s been so hard trying to keep my heart rate down for my match because I love those guys.
Finishing off the stretch of four ranked wrestlers is sophomore No. 10 157-pounder Cody Chittum. Chittum took down a top 15 wrestler in his latest match and will look to rekindle that magic Friday night.
“I have a hard time believing that Cody Chittum is not going to get what he wants,” St. John said. “Come in, put in the work, do the right things to get yourself where you need to be, and when the dust settles you can feel pretty good regardless of the result.”
The seniors for senior night will include No. 14 184-pounder Evan Bockman, 125-pounder Kysen Terukina, 141-pounder Zach Redding and 174-pounder Cade Schmidt.
The senior night dual will be streamed live on ESPN+.
