AMES — Evan and Jacob Frost are no strangers to the sport of wrestling. As kids, the two would hold mock WWE-style tag-team matchups with their older brother, Cameron Frost. 

The two grew up in Louisiana with parents who didn’t like them wrestling against one another. Respectively, that’s one of the reasons they wrestle in two different weight classes. While they don’t wrestle one another directly in competition, they have a bond that is unbreakable. 

“Our older brother Cameron and our mom were the first to introduce us to the sport,” Evan Frost said. “We started going with one of [Cameron’s] buddies, and the rest was history.”

At Holy Cross High School in New Orleans, the Frost twins won three state titles, highlighted by a team runner-up finish in 2021, before moving to Iowa and enrolling at Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines. 

The pair once again won individual state titles at Dowling under former Holy Cross assistant, Ryak Finch, a former Iowa State wrestler. Dowling placed sixth place as a team in the 2021-22 season at the 3A level. 

As their high school careers ended, one thing became abundantly clear. Evan and Jacob Frost wanted to wrestle at the collegiate level, but not in separate rooms for different programs.

Currently, the twins live together; they have their entire lives. What’s surprising is that the twins are enrolled in the same major and even have the exact same class schedule, partially helped by Iowa State’s early enrollment plan for student athletes. Their classes, alongside their day-to-day lives, are mirrored.

“We typically wake up, work out, eat breakfast, and go about our day,” Evan Frost said. “We go the full nine yards. Everything from our class schedule to the daily routine is the same.”

The Frost twins, both mechanical engineering majors, originally had their sights set on Columbia University. They flipped their commitment to Iowa State in May of 2022 and decided to stay local after learning about Iowa State’s mechanical engineering program.

“There was never a scenario where we weren’t going to end up at the same school,” Evan Frost said. “That’s never something we were ever going to let happen.” 

Several accolades have highlighted Evan Frost’s career at Iowa State through his first two seasons. He claimed three open titles and defeated No. 15 Kyle Biscoglia at the Daktronics Open and appeared in the UNI Open and North Country Open. He added a second-place finish at the Grand View Open before redshirting the remainder of the 2022-23 season.

This season, the Frost brothers both competed for starting spots in the Cyclone lineup. Evan Frost won the starting role at 133, and Jacob Frost won a wrestle-off against middleweight contender Zach Redding to claim the starting spot at 141 before the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas.

The twins appeared in Las Vegas at the Cliff Keen Invitational dual Friday. It played host to Jacob Frost’s debut alongside his twin brother. The tournament was Evan Frost’s second appearance in Las Vegas and presented a moment the Frost brothers wouldn’t soon forget.

“It’s nice to see,” Evan said. “To see [Jacob] go out there and compete the way he did, wrestle as hard as he did at Cliff Keen, and get that experience, it was something I’ll never forget.” 

Neither one watched the other compete due to their warmups, but the overwhelming sense of gratitude for one another was evident. 

“I didn’t really have time to watch [Evan’s] matchups because I was warming up most of the time,” Jacob said. “In the past, I’ve focused more on his matchups than mine, and it was cool to get out there and compete.”

The brothers are the first pair of identical twins in the history of Iowa State wrestling to make the starting lineup at their respective weights and the first pair of brothers to compete since Gabe and Michael Moreno took the mat in 2014 at 149 and 165.

“Those two do everything right,” Iowa State head coach Kevin Dresser said. “Jacob’s debut at the Cliff Keen Invitational confirms that. [Jacob] made some good strides in his final matchups, and I’m really proud of him.”

On the road, the two share hotel rooms, meals and bond over the littlest things. Even when they weren’t together in the starting lineup last season, there were still some colorful conversations between the two.

“We’ve had times when Jacob has been banged up and Evan has been in the room on the grind, and I think now that they’re both in there competing that it’s gotten easier on them,” Dresser said. “Heck, any pair of twins that can wrestle as good as them can compete for a spot on this team.” 

Social media plays a part in how the pair enjoy their time on the road. When one of them is traveling and the other isn’t, they still communicate and encourage one another regardless of distance. 

“We’ll send Instagram Reels or TikToks when one of us is on the road,” Evan said. “Outside of that, we’re just like everybody else. It’s been that way ever since we were young.”

The fans aren’t the only ones who have trouble telling the two apart. Dresser often gets the two confused in practice. In all fairness, it’s hard not to, considering they are identical twins only seven pounds apart. 

“I can’t tell those guys apart until they step off the scale,” Dresser said. “They’re two guys who do everything right, and I think the dynamic has been a big part of their success so far this season.”