Evan and Jacob Frost fell in love with wrestling at age six, seven or maybe eight.

They can’t pinpoint the exact age, but agreed that it was love at first scrap.

“(We) enjoyed it,” said Iowa State’s 133-pounder Evan Frost, who saw his twin, Jacob, join the Cyclones’ lineup at 141 at last weekend’s Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. “Just kind of beating up each other with rules set. I know when we first started it was more just us beating each other up because that’s what we did in the house, me and Jacob.”

 No furniture, the Frosts said, turned into crushed kindling before they delved into the art of structured wrestling as youngsters. Mom didn’t let that happen. But once they took to the sport, the Frost twins did plenty of damage on the mat, as both won three state titles for Holy Cross High School in suburban New Orleans. They then transferred to Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines as high school seniors before eventually committing to head coach Kevin Dresser’s Iowa State program. 

Evan won Iowa’s Class 3A title at 132 pounds as a senior. Jacob earned runner-up honors at 138. 

Now instead of being separated by six pounds, it’s eight, but that’s about as far apart as they get — both on and off the mat.

“If you can tell them apart, then give me the secret because they’re very similar in everything, and they both are very good wrestlers,” said Dresser, whose young and banged-up team took fifth at the Cliff Keen Invitational after winning the title last season.

Evan Frost became the Cyclones’ first 133-pound All-American since 2016 as a redshirt freshman last season while Jacob strained to earn a spot in the lineup. He recently won a wrestle-off with fellow 141-pounder Zach Redding to earn his spot in Las Vegas, where he finished fifth. His sixth-ranked brother reached the finals but fell, 7-3, to #5 Zeth Romney of Cal Poly in the championship bout. Evan took second for the second consecutive time in Vegas — and started the event by overcoming a late 10-1 deficit against Arizona State’s Julian Chlebove and pinning him in 6:59.

“All I could hear was pretty much (Iowa State assistant and two-time NCAA champ for Iowa Brent) Metcalf just saying, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going,’” said Evan Frost, who, like his brother, is a mechanical engineering major. “He just kept saying, ‘We’ve gotta get one, we’ve gotta get one, we’ve gotta get one.’ Whether he believed that ending was gonna end how it did, I don’t know, but he just kept saying, ‘You’ve got to finish the match and see what happens.’”

That’s how Jacob approached rarely being in the lineup last season. He just kept going and going — and now he’s grappling alongside his brother, instead of squaring off against him like he did when they were six, seven or maybe eight.

“(Our mom), she didn’t like us wrestling each other much, and obviously fighting at the house too much,” Jacob Frost said. “That’s why I ended up always wrestling a weight class above him. We wrestled each other way back in the day a little bit, but she didn’t like that too much so we split.”

Only when it comes to competition. The Frosts naturally room together and take all the same classes. They’re joined at the hip in one sense, even as Evan has faced some struggles while cutting weight as Jacob can be relatively carefree in terms of his diet.

Dresser’s just happy to have both of them in his room — even though he finds it hard to tell them apart.

“If they wrestle really good, I’ll take twins all day long,” he quipped. “If they can’t wrestle worth a dang, I don’t want ‘em.”

Lineup Limbo 

Iowa State already lost All-American 149-pounder Casey Swiderski (who had dropped to 141) and promising sophomore 165-pounder Connor Euton to injury this season, while seeing 2022 All-American Yonger Bastida wrestle sparingly because of a knee strain.

Now current 149-pounder Anthony Echemendia — an All-American at 141 last season — will be out four-to-six weeks with a high ankle sprain.

“He really got that thing cranked on,” Dresser said. “I wish I could put a finger, or pinpoint (why there are so many injuries). I’ve been doing this a long time. One year when I was at Virginia Tech, we had a very similar year where we just couldn’t get healthy, and we’re in that situation right now. I wish I could pinpoint and say we need to do more of this and less of this. I think it’s just bad luck.”

How bad? Dresser said there’s a chance Bastida, who’s ranked fourth at heavyweight, could end up seeking a medical redshirt.

But there’s also a silver lining to the walking wounded situation, as younger wrestlers such as heavyweight Daniel Herrera have stepped up and performed well when pressed into duty.

The Cyclones will wrestle against North Dakota State this weekend at Dresser’s high school alma mater, Humboldt.

“You’re gonna see guys this weekend that you’ve probably never seen in a varsity singlet at Iowa State,” Dresser said. “And Daniel, when the opportunity arose, he took it. So we don’t know. We’ve got some things to figure out there.”