Feeding off Reader's success

AMES - Andrew Sorenson seized the wheel.

Teammate and best friend Max Mayfield handed him the keys.

Eighteen hours of solo driving later, the injured, but focused Iowa State wrestler steered the borrowed, but reliable Oldsmobile Alero into Philadelphia, finally settling into his seat last March at the NCAA Championships.

Sorenson made the trek as a cheerleader, not a competitor. His pain ran deep - beyond the mangled elbow that forced Coach Kevin Jackson to make a what's-best-for-the-team judgment call and replace him in the lineup with Chris Spangler.

His ISU devotion ran deeper, as he bellowed intense, audible support for teammate and frequent workout partner Jon Reader, who finally realized his dream of becoming a national champion.

“I really wanted to wrestle,” said Sorenson, who is 12-0 this season and wrestles Thursday and Friday at the 49th Midlands Championships in Evanston, Ill. “I thought I deserved to be there - even injured, I could have competed, but driving out there was an experience with my teammates that I won't forget. Watching Jon win nationals is an experience that I'll never forget. That drive solidified my thought that I will be the national champion this year.”

So far, so good.

Sorenson, a Woden native who won a state title for Forest City, has scored bonus points in seven of his 12 wins, providing a shining spot for a young Cyclone team beset with injuries that stands 0-8 in dual meets.

Reader - now a volunteer assistant for Jackson who will compete this spring in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - said Sorenson's never-quit attitude will serve him well in his quest for the top of the medal stand.

“He's capable of winning the NCAA,” Reader said. “It's all a matter of the way he approaches his matches and continuing to wrestle the way that he is trained through Coach Jackson, because I truly believe the training that Coach Jackson provides and instills in all of his athletes is world-class skills and tactics that I believe can win at any level.”

Sorenson started, like most wrestlers, on the ground floor. He didn't come from a wrestling family. He entered a wrestling room for the first time as a first-grader - at the urging of his teacher.

“I had a lot of energy and she hated it,” Sorenson said with a laugh.

That energy led him to become a charter member of the Forest City Little Indians Wrestling Club - a group that has grown from eight to more than 70. Sorenson won his first match and was hooked.

“There's not many things like wrestling,” he said. “It's one-on-one, man-versus-man and you just go out there and compete as hard as you can. I was a very stubborn child.”

That implacable spirit proved the perfect fit for wrestling. It's allowed him to push through injuries and push around foes, including five this season ranked in the top 20 by Intermat.

No one, in Sorenson's mind, can match his work ethic and preparation. Whether behind the wheel, on the attack or fending off a shot.

“When it comes down to the grind, when it comes down to that last minute, two minutes, where you're breathing hard, you're tired and you're thinking about all the other things, you just think back, like, this is the last time I've got,” he said.

Just like Reader, Sorenson vows to make the most of it.

“His senior year he went out and made sure there was no doubt that he was the best guy, the most dominant guy,” Sorenson said. “That's what I'm looking to do.”