After the iconic Beauty and the Beast event on Friday the wrestlers will have Saturday to rest and recuperate before powerhouse Oklahoma State invades Hilton on Sunday.

The Cowboys enter the meet No. 1 on the country fresh off convincing wins against No. 3 Iowa and No. 19 South Dakota State.

Even still Iowa State coach Kevin Jackson expects a competitive dual.

“There are some matchups where they’re really good, but up and down the lineup we match up with them pretty well,” Jackson said. “I expect our guys to compete as well as they have all season. I think all of our guys will have a chance to do well and a chance to win. But they have to wrestle hard for seven minutes, they have to take advantage of scoring opportunities and get off of the bottom.”

They open with their worst wrestler, No. 12 Nick Piccininni at 125 pounds. Every other wrestler is in the top-10.

“[Wrestling the best] is where I thrive,” Kyle Larson said. “It’s going to be a great match for me and the fans. It’s going to be great to pick up that W moving forward.”

After Piccininni the Cowboys send out 133-pound redshirt freshman No. 3 Kaid Brock.

Brock is coming off a loss to South Dakota State’s Seth Gross. Iowa State’s Earl Hall is coming off a loss to Northern Iowa’s Josh Alber.

Each wants to get back in the win column.

“I know we’re definitely looking to redeem ourselves this weekend,” No. 12 Hall said. “I know he has a little chip on his shoulder, and I do as well. We both love the sport and we both love the grind. He’s a young guy that’s continuing to build a name for himself, and I’m an older guy continuing to get through the season and not make anybody else’s season for them.”

Brock is a quick wrestler, who has a lot of speed on the mat — similar to Hall. Hall said whichever one stops moving first is the one who’ll get taken down.

The other ranked matchups in the dual are at 174 pounds and at 184 pounds.

No. 10 Lelund Weatherspoon and No. 8 Kyle Crutchmer didn’t meet at the Big 12 Championships last season because Crutchmer broke his foot. Instead Weatherspoon wrestled Oklahoma State’s current 165-pounder No. 6 Chandler Rogers.

Weatherspoon beat Rogers to claim his second Big 12 title.

Iowa State will send out either Dane Pestano, who’s back from injury, or Logan Breitenbach. Rogers is strong on top and is able to turn his opponents on cue, so whoever gets the call for Iowa State will need to work hard on bottom to limit Rogers’ big-move ability.

The match of the dual will be at 184 pounds between No. 8 Pat Downey and No. 6 Nolan Boyd.

Downey has a straightforward plan when he takes the mat.

“I’m just going to go out there and take him down, put him on his back and be better at wrestling than him,” Downey said.

The most interesting match between a ranked and unranked wrestler is at 157 pounds.

Colston DiBlasi is wrestling No. 5 Joe Smith — the son of Cowboy coach and legendary wrestler, John Smith.

The two met their senior year in high school. Smith beat DiBlasi 4-3.

“He shoots low singles, just like his dad does,” DiBlasi said. “The man, the myth, the legend — all of the low singles. He’s just really fast and explosive, likes elbow ties.”

It’s not a secret that Iowa State hasn’t had the season it expected. But a win this weekend could go a long way to getting the team back on track.

“As a collective unit, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, I’m sure they’re both maybe top 10, Oklahoma State is usually top-3 in the country, so they’re obviously good at wrestling,” Downey said. “If we won this weekend it’d be huge, it’d say, ‘Hey, we’re a contending team.’ We do have this talent and we can wrestle good.”