Andrew Sorenson remembers his first time under the lights of Hilton Coliseum two years ago with the weight of the team seemingly on his shoulders.

The then-sophomore 157-pounder lost an 8-6 decision to Aaron Janssen that shifted three coveted team points to rival Iowa as Iowa State, ranked No. 2 at the time, lost to its top-ranked intrastate rival 18-16.

“It was the first time I stepped on the mat as a varsity wrestler at Iowa State and it was in front of 14,000, 15,000 people in Hilton and it was up on the stage, the lights were all turned off, it was spotlighted and it got to me,” Sorenson said.

“I couldn’t breathe, got tired super fast and I didn’t wrestle like myself. I gave up a reversal, gave up some riding time. It was a learning experience, that’s for sure.”

This Sunday, intrastate rival Iowa travels to Hilton — ranked No. 1 in the nation as it was in the 2009 dual — to take on a young ISU team that has lost five straight duals to open the season.

The bleak start to the season, however, will not put a damper on the Cyclones’ attempt at knocking off the Hawkeyes for the first time since 2004.

“It’ll give the guys who have really trained hard an opportunity to show off what skills they do have,” said 174-pounder Chris Spangler. “It will give an opportunity for our up-and-comers to really shock people and really show everybody what they’ve got.”

Even though the ISU-Iowa rivalry is ingrained into the culture of the state, some of ISU coach Kevin Jackson’s out-of-state recruits who will be competing in it for the first time have not had the same feel for it until coming to Iowa State.

“I didn’t know a lot about [the rivalry],” said redshirt freshman Ryak Finch. “I had heard about it when I was getting recruited, and the year after I had watched it on the Internet [in 2009] and it looked wild. Then last year I watched it in Iowa City, so I kind of have a feel for it.”

Sorenson, who now competes at 165 pounds, said he’s gotten used to the limelight since the dual in 2009, but still tries to advise younger wrestlers to be wary of getting too caught up in the environment of that magnitude.

“The biggest thing is to stay relaxed,” Sorenson said. “Every year we have new freshmen come in and wrestle and the first time they put on that singlet and get out there, they get all excited and it all gets to them.

“It’s going to be the same for this dual, they’re going to feel it a little bit. They’ve got to stay in the back and stay relaxed and know they’ve got to focus on themselves and to wrestle hard for seven minutes.”

Former Cyclone set for MMA fight

Former ISU wrestler Phil Hawes is set to take the octagon in a mixed-martial arts event on Jan. 28 in Hy-Vee Hall, less than a year removed from donning a cardinal-and-gold singlet.

Hawes, who competed for Iowa State last year at 197 pounds in relief for Jerome Ward, said he told Jackson in late September that he would not return to the team this season.

“It was my senior year and there was only one more year left and I knew if I wasn’t looking toward the Olympics to compete at the next level, there’s really nothing you can do except be a wrestling coach,” Hawes said.

“The years I’ve been wrestling would help my MMA career, a lot of people said. A lot of people said I’d have a good career in MMA so I decided to try it.”

Hawes said Jackson was “taken aback” by his departure from the team, especially since it came a little more than a month before the start of the season.

“It was a surprise, really,” Jackson said. “We were counting on him and we’d assumed that if Kyven [Gadson] wasn’t healthy and if Boaz [Beard] wasn’t healthy, we’d also have him as an option and that was a pretty decent option.”

For Hawes, the decision to leave wrestling for MMA was not an easy one to make.

“At first I didn’t want to man up to the decision, it took a toll on me,” Hawes said. “I took a while to adjust to making [my departure] official.”

Hawes is still enrolled as a student at Iowa State, but Sorenson said after he left the team he somewhat avoided his former teammates because the decision affected him the way it did.

“I think he’s regretting his decision because I really think that in the back of his mind, he kind of thought that it was going to be tough to break the lineup with Boaz and Kyven,” Jackson said of Hawes. “I just really wish he would have given himself a chance.”

As for MMA, Hawes’ teammates have experienced support for him on Twitter and even tried to come up with nicknames for him in the sport.

“He’s only been doing it for a month and he’s already got a sponsor,” Sorenson said. “I think they’ll see big things out of him.”