AMES – Coming off of a Big 12 title and an NCAA fourth-place finish, No. 6 Iowa State opens its 2024-25 campaign with a match Friday against No. 20 Stanford. 

“We’re tired of beating ourselves up,” Iowa State head coach Kevin Dresser said. “We need to beat someone else up.”

The Cyclones will be heavily dependent on a younger squad for the opener. The team has 34 underclassmen and eight of them will be in the starting lineup. Three of them are true freshmen, including Adrian Meza at 125 pounds, Kane Naaktgeboren at 157 pounds and Daniel Herrera as the heavyweight.

“These freshmen that we’ve got are dangerous,” senior Anthony Echemendia said. “They’re hungry and not gonna take a step back for anybody.”

“You don’t get too many times that you are hanging your top 10 ranking on three true freshmen, so I think it says a lot about them,” Dresser said. “Sometimes as a coach, it is a little scary and you’d like to have more maturity in there.”

Part of this is due to standout All-American Yonger Bastida’s absence with a slight knee sprain. 

“He’s able to do everything but really hard wrestling right now,” Dresser said. “We’re probably being a little extra cautious because we are early.” 

While only being a sophomore, Evan Frost will need to be a leader among the young guns. 

“I’m not this big leader by voice, but I like to lead by example,” Frost said. “I’m wrestling really hard. If we’re doing sprints, I’m going really hard and I’m trying my best to win.”

Last year, Frost burst onto the scene, earning All-American honors out of nowhere. He recorded a 22-7 record and was 11-2 in duels. 

“I don’t think any of us had in our crystal ball him being top six in the nation,” Dresser said. “Hopefully his skill set is a little higher than last year because we know the toughness is there.”

Echemendia is one of the veteran players helping steer the ship. Of the three seniors in the lineup, he is one of them.

Echemendia finished fifth at the NCAA championships and became the fifth Cyclone to win a conference title at 141 pounds. 

In previous years, Iowa State faced off against some lesser competition. This season, the Cyclones have their hands full opening against No. 20 Stanford.

“On paper, it’s the toughest team we have ever started out with,” Dresser said. “I think they’ve got six out of 10 weights ranked in the top 20. It’s gonna be a lot for us to jump into right now, especially with a really young squad and missing a couple of All-Americans [Bastida and Casey Swiderski].”

Two of the more impressive duals will be No. 5 Frost going against No. 20 Tyler Knox at 133 pounds and No. 6 Echemendia going against either No. 10 Jaden Abas or EJ Parco.

“I know that he’s a good wrestler,” Echemendia said. “I respect him as a person, but he’s gotta be ready for a dog fight.”

Iowa State and Stanford will face off for just the second time in program history. The Cyclones took the first matchup 23-18 back in 2005. 

The match is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Hilton Coliseum and will be streamed live on ESPN+.