Iowa State 197-pounder Christian Carroll craves the catcalls. He basks in the boos. The tough-as-nails but largely unproven redshirt freshman will revel in each slight, slur, and insult hurled against him when he takes the mat against Iowa’s top-ranked Stephen Buchanan on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

“I love being in a hostile environment,” the #14-ranked Elkhart, Ind., native said. “I love that energy. I love being hated. I love being doubted. I just want to get after it and prove everyone wrong.”

Carroll’s fond of referring to himself as “the hunter” this season as the Cyclones seek to end a dispiriting 19-dual meet skid against the Hawkeyes. He’s one of four ISU wrestlers who will face top-five opponents in the annual Cy-Hawk battle.

“It kind of pisses me off,” Carroll said of his underdog status — a term his team has widely adopted early this season as it’s battled injuries. “I want to prove them wrong. There (are) a lot of people saying this, that, whatever. I don’t get into social media much. I don’t read anything. I hear things, whatever, I don’t care. I just want to get in there and wrestle hard for seven minutes to let the country know, put them on notice, that at 197 pounds, I can frickin’ scrap with everyone.”

OK, then.

The last two Cy-Hawk duals have been decided by four points or less, so being underdogs on paper doesn’t necessarily doom ISU to defeat against their top intrastate rival.

Four Cyclone wrestlers ranked by Flo in the top 10 will try to offset seven Hawkeyes who sit in similar positions or even higher in the rankings.

Three of the most intriguing projected matchups will likely occur at 133, 149, and 157 pounds. ISU’s #5 Evan Frost is expected to face seventh-ranked Drake Ayala at 133. The Cyclones’ #6 Anthony Echemendia is slated to tangle with #4 Kyle Parco at 149, and 10th-ranked Paniro Johnson could encounter top-ranked Jacori Teemer at 157.

Echemendia is eager to square off with Parco, who reached the NCAA podium four times at Fresno State and Arizona State before transferring to Iowa.

“We’re all excited for this dual and it’s gonna be a good matchup for me,” Echemendia said. “It’s gonna be a guy that I might have to wrestle in March, and I’m just looking forward to wrestle, get my hands on him, and wrestle him hard. Because he knows I’m coming. Like, everybody — when I’m out there, it’s all about giving everything that I’ve got, and whatever happens, happens at the end of the match.”

Carroll will carry that same devil-may-care attitude into his match on Saturday, eager to prove he’s been underestimated and overlooked. A true “hunter” who soon may become the “hunted.”

“He’s kind of quiet around me, but I think when you get a microphone around him he’s not quite as quiet,” Cyclone head coach Kevin Dresser said. “In this guy’s career, he’s not gonna get to be the underdog much. And it’s kind of like our team — we’ve had a lot of good things happen to us as of late. Winning a Big 12 championship, getting a (national) trophy (for a fourth-place finish), this team hasn’t been an underdog much. So just like Christian Carroll — Iowa State and Christian Carroll, we’re gonna go into enemy territory, and we’re gonna be the underdog, and that’s when you find out what you’re made out of.”

Either Or 

Iowa State’s probable lineup in Saturday night’s Cy-Hawk dual includes three “ors” at 125. But consider that winnowed down to two by the time weigh-ins are place.

“We’ll probably weigh in Kysen Terukina and (Adrian) Meza both,” Dresser said. “We’ve got to get through (Wednesday), and (if) we get through Wednesday, those two guys will be go and we’ll figure out which guy is gonna be the guy.”

Bastida’s 'Ready To Go' 

The Cyclones’ dynamic heavyweight, Yonger Bastida, is expected to make his season debut in Iowa City. He’s ranked fourth at his weight and is eager to return to the mat after struggling at the NCAAs last season. Bastida’s been hampered by what’s been deemed a “minor knee sprain” incurred in practice a couple of weeks ago.

“He’s going,” Dresser said. “We’ve got some scrappin’ to do (this week). We’ll guard him a little bit, but at the same time, we’ve gotta go. He had a good scrap (Monday), and he was really (going) hard late last week, so he’s ready to go.”