Here is my case –
This past weekend Hawkeye 149 pound starter Brandon Sorensen picked up two big victories for the Hawkeyes, but even though he put in such a fantastic performance, there is a chance he won’t win the weekly conference honor.
I’ll start with the why not:
This past weekend was also the Southern Scuffle tournament in Tennessee. The Scuffle has gone from a pretty good tournament to probably the toughest regular season tournament in the NCAA. For example, the Scuffle boasts four of the top eight tournament teams in the NCAA (compared to the Midlands which had four of the top ten). Point being is there were a lot of big names in the field.
Most likely Nebraska’s Robert Kokesh, who had several big wins by bonus and a win over #4 Matt Brown in the finals, is a good bet to win the honor. Not that Kokesh isn’t deserving, but I wanted to make sure that Sorensen’s performance was recognized and make my case to the Big Ten.
So here is the why:
Friday night in New Jersey the Hawkeye freshman came out and put up a major decision over his Rutgers opponent Ken Theobold. In the win he put up 18 points on Theobold, and put Iowa back ahead in the dual. It also kicked off a string of five straight Hawkeye wins.
Sorensen then came out Sunday in his match against then #5 ranked Hunter Stieber of Ohio State and put up a 9-7 victory, with three takedowns in the third. If Sorensen’s 3rd place Midlands performance (for the second straight year I might add) didn’t put him on your radar, this win should have.
Further showing Sorensen’s aggressiveness is a piece by Cody Goodwin (strongly recommend you read this breakdown) he tells us that Sorensen took four shots in the first two periods (so add that to his three takedowns in the third) and you can tell that he was pushing the action in that match the entire time. His upset wasn’t a third period fluke in a close match, Sorensen was going for the win from the opening whistle.
Maybe the Big Ten will recognize Sorensen’s big weekend, but if they don’t at least we have made his case. He is already an honorable mention by Flowrestling’s Ryan Holmes, so there is some hope that a Hawkeye brings home the honor for back-to-back weeks (Telford won the honor last week after he winning a Midlands title).
I will also add, that I don’t think this closes the door on the 149 situation for Iowa. Brands even said as much after the Ohio State dual, that we will need to see Sorensen continue this type of performances.
About the Author
Brands needs to just pick a starter this head game stuff and the constant switching needs to end. Just pick the guy and leave it. If he starts to wrestle bad then you can bring in the other for a meet to rest him or wake him up.