Angry and alone works for Moore

IOWA CITY - Describing someone as angry and alone doesn't portray a pleasant portrait.

Well, unless the person is University of Iowa Coach Tom Brands talking about the training habits of 165-pounder Nick Moore.

The phrase sheds a little on Moore's approach to his senior season, qualifying for the last two NCAA Championships but missing out on All-American honors. Moore enters the season ranked seventh by Amateur Wrestling News.

'He is a super competitor,” Brands said. 'He had a splendid high school career and he is frustrated, but one thing you see with him is that he's training this year angry and alone, and there's a lot to that.”

Brands the phrase during the summer and it stuck. Moore said Brands liked it and it was accurate.

'I didn't mind it either,” Moore said. 'It's just training alone, training by yourself, a training without the results. All those things and just used to motivate me and to keep going.”

Moore was 23-5 last season, finishing as a Big Ten runner-up. He was impressive most of the season, leading Hawkeye starters with seven major decisions. He has improved each season, but stumbled at the national tournament, going 2-2 last year as the No. 5 seed.

'There was a down period right after nationals where I just got away for a while,” Moore said. 'It was a good time to think about things and think about other things beside wrestling.'

Moore returned to work wrestling camps and was set on putting the past behind him and move forward.

Brands said he would drive the hilly, bumpy road that leads to Carver-Hawkeye Arena and witnessed Moore running in sweats and a stocking cap with temperatures in the mid-90s. The agony is a wat of breaking through mental blocks that might have hindered him in the postseason.

'It's not necessarily something I just adopted this summer,” Moore said. 'it's something that I've done all throughout college.

'It's a little bit crazy to do. You go out in 90-degree heat and put sweats on and you run three-and-a-half miles or something. You get done and it's something good you did. It's the edge Tom Brands talks about.”

Moore, an Iowa City West four-time Iowa City West state champion, will look to transform that edge to an All-American finish. Moore said a key will be to approach each session separately and fight through each round.

'You have to put a tournament together,” Moore said. 'It's something (if) you slip somewhere you have to be ready to get back up and be ready for that next session.”

Sorensen set to make impact

Brandon Sorensen is ready to exchange his red-shirt for the black-and-gold singlet. Sorensen could make an immediate impact 24-4 red-shirt year last season.

'I'm real anxious,” Sorensen said. 'I want to be there. I was watching the guys last year. I'm ready for it.”

Sorensen displayed his potential, finishing third at 149 pounds at the Midlands Championships and was runner-up to NCAA Champion Derek St. John at 157 in the Luther Open. it was hard to watch his teammates from the bench in front of the home crowd.

'It kind of sucks, but when you're watching the matches you're learning too,” Sorensen said. 'You get more anxious for it and more ready for it. You're really building to get there.”

Sorensen said he plans to wrestle 149 this season. Brody Grothus is ninth in the preseason rankings after a 24-12 mark last season. Transfer Edwin Cooper also will contend for a spot at 149 or 157. Cooper was an NCAA Division II finalist for Upper Iowa last season and was a 2012 NJCAA national champion for Iowa Central.

Carton in the mix at 141

Sophomore Topher Carton has made strides, according to Iowa Coach Tom Brands. The progress has put him in position to vie for the starting spot with senior national qualifier Josh Dziewa, who was fifth at the 2014 Big Ten Championships.

Carton, the former Davenport Assumption state champion, was 23-7 last season, winning the William Penn Open and reaching the finals in two other events.

Brands said Carton would earn the 'most-improved” award, dating back to last January, if he gave out one.

'That's 10 months. And that's a positive,” Brands said. 'But, we still have to take another giant step. I don't think you take giant steps until you take little steps.”

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