Iowa State is set for a rematch versus Fresno State and a dual versus No. 15 Northern Iowa while several Iowa State starting positions are up in the air and with a blossoming wrestler at 197-pounds.

At 165 and 174-pounds, Iowa State will be having wrestle-offs to determine the starter at each weight.

Brady Jennings and Skyler St. John will be competing for the 165-pound weight class. Last week, Jennings was able to knock off North Dakota State’s Andrew Fogarty who then had a 23-8 record and had beaten No. 9 Logan Massa from Michigan.

The 174-pound weight class will be a competition between Danny Bush and Hank Swalla.

After missing all of last weekend with a knee injury, Iowa State’s No. 18 ranked 141-pounder Ian Parker’s status will be up in the air again this week. Parker was the Big 12 Wrestler of the Week two weeks ago and Iowa State was left without an option at 141-pounds with him out.

Iowa State will have to continue to roll with fourth-string 125-pounder Sinjin Briggs after it was announced that Jakob Allison will be out for the rest of the season after requiring surgery on his broken hand.

The Cyclone staff was hopeful that Allison had a chance of making it back toward the end of the season, but the surgery cut those hopes short.

No one on the Iowa State roster has built as much momentum since the beginning of the season as 197-pounder Sam Colbray who pinned now No. 11 Nate Rotert from South Dakota State in 5:22.

Colbray was then announced as this week’s Co-Big 12 Wrestler of the Week along with Utah Valley’s Kimball Bastian.

Colbray credits a new mentality to his recent success on the mat.

“I knew that I had everything in my arsenal,” Colbray said. “I knew that I had what it takes to be competitive, to be someone who can win.”

Along with the new mental aspect of his game, Colbray had multiple conversations with his father on how to improve his wrestling. The two would go through Colbray’s matches and highlight parts of the match where Colbray would make a mistake and how to correct it.

Colbray’s father wasn’t the only person helping to evolve Colbray’s game as coach Kevin Dresser recently challenged him to score at least seven to nine points every match and have a takedown every round.

“He said ‘it’s pretty hard to beat Sam Colbray when you have nine points on the board,’ and that’s what I was working for [in the match versus Rotert],” Colbray said.

Colbray is 3-0 when scoring at least seven points this season.

With wrestling so well lately Colbray’s teammates foresee even more improvement and perhaps a postseason run in March.

“It’s not really surprising me or any of the coaching staff because we see him wrestle like that in the room every day,” said heavyweight Marcus Harrington. “I think it was only a matter of time before he actually started performing like this.”

This weekend will feature two rematches for Colbray against No. 19 Jacob Holschlag from Northern Iowa and Josh Hokit from Fresno State.

Colbray lost to Holschlag 9-2 at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and lost to Hokit 7-2 at the Virginia Duals.

The last five times Northern Iowa and Iowa State have met Iowa State has won three out of five duals with the last win coming in the 2015-16 season.

Iowa State’s dual versus Northern Iowa will be the first Big 12 conference dual between these in-state rivals since this is Northern Iowa’s inaugural season with the Big 12.

This season Northern Iowa is currently the No. 15 team in the nation sitting at a 5-4 record and they have six wrestlers in InterMat’s top 20.

Fresno State is also in their first season in the Big 12, but Iowa State has already beaten them 25-16 at the Virginia Duals.

Iowa State squares off against Fresno State at 7 p.m. on Friday at home and versus Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. on Saturday away.