Montell Marion Permanently Dismissed From Iowa Wrestling Program
by Adam Jacobi on May 5, 2010 2:00 PM CDT
in Iowa Hawkeyes Wrestling
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PrintWell, that didn't take long. Just one day after a DUI stemming from a very ill-advised right-hand turn landed him on suspension, Montell Marion has been "permanently suspended" from the UI wrestling team.
In a release, Iowa associate athletics director Fred Mims said, "Due to Montell’s recent and previous violations of our student-athlete code of conduct, we have no choice at this point but to remove him from the Iowa wrestling program."
Mims also said in the statement that if Marion wishes to transfer to another NCAA institution, the university athletics department would support a transfer "pursuant to the NCAA’s one-time transfer policy."
This is obviously rough news for the program; Marion was expected to be one of the cornerstones of next year's rebuilding Hawkeye program, and now there's nobody returning at 141--the other two heads of the 141 Cerberus, Dan LeClere and Joe Slaton, are both graduating.
There is, however, one way for Marion to make it back in the program's good graces; it's not as if Marion would be the first wrestler ever to come back from a permanent dismissal. Will we be seeing this in Iowa City soon?
What? It had been hours since we'd made a gratuitous WWE reference. We were clearly overdue.
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AWESOME
Before you respond, let me remind you: Brian Cook called me smug, which makes me the Obama of smugness. I'm basically Smugbama.
Well, McDonough...
It’s your team now, and now you’ve got 9 weight classes to pull up to your level.
Just when Marion looked like he had his stuff figured out…
Jesus
Well, this is the news I feared. Looks like 2010-2011 will not be another repeat of the past three seasons of winning the National Championship.
They took the bar, the whole fucking bar!
by recoveringfratguy on May 5, 2010 2:42 PM CDT reply actions
To be honest, I'm not sure how much the loss of Marion will have to do with that.
He was good last year, no question, and he had a great run in the NCAA Tournament… but he also had a near-perfect draw — I don’t think he fought a single higher-seeded guy until the finals and Dake. The odds of him getting similarly favorable treatment next year are probably not awesome. And he was frustratingly inconsistent at times last year, particularly against guys as good or better than him. There was a reason we worried about whether or not he would even get All-America — it was just so hard to know where his head was at.
Now, that said… it’s obviously still a big blow because he was good and and he was a national runner-up. I don’t think you ever want to take a guy like that out of the line-up if you have a choice. But whether or not Iowa made it four in a row next year was always going to come down to whether or not enough of the new faces in the line-up emerged as serious threats to become All-Americans. That still hasn’t changed. We were going to need big things out of new (or newish) faces next year and we still are — we’re just going to need slightly more than we were expecting now.
I’m curious to see how they handle this in the line-up. On the plus side, the lower weights are relatively deep, so there should be some options there. I’m wondering if they would have Nate Moore bump up to 141 (from 133), have McD go up to 133, and have Ramos and Clark battle it out at 125. That’s one option. Another might be for someone a weight higher up (Carew?) to move down to 141. I dunno – just spitballin’ here…
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
I know that Brands prefers to redshirt kids.
But is there any chance that Nick Moore sees the mat next year? He just wrapped up state title number four, and finished his HS career at 152. Does he make the cut to 149, or is he expected to jump up to 157? If he comes down to ’49, how likely is it that a current ’49 pounder considers the cut to ’41?
by The Mexican't on May 5, 2010 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions
I think his preference is always for incoming freshmen to redshirt.
But he also wants to win and I suspect he’d play a true freshman if he thought he’d help them win.
I’m not sure which weight Nick will be at in college. My guess is his ultimate destiny might be 157, but a lot probably depends on what St. John winds up doing. If he moves up as expected, that would free up 157.
Right now, Iowa has the current faces at 133-149:
- Mark Ballweg (133/141) SO
- Dylan Carew (149) SO
- Jeret Chiri (149/157) SO
- Stew Gillmor (149/157) JR
- Tyler Halverson (141) JR
- Nate Moore (133) SO
- Ethan Sebert (149) JR
- Philip Sheridan (141) SO
Among the incoming freshmen, Josh Dwieza is around that weight (he wrestled 135 in HS) and was #1 in the nation at that weight class. I don’t think any of the other incoming freshmen are near that weight.
Personally, I think the names to watch are Ballweg and Moore at 141. I think Carew and Chiri battle it out at 149. I know nothing about Gillmor, Halverson, Sebert, or Sheridan; they don’t seem to have a lot of buzz around them.
Incidentally, Iowa could have two sets of relatives in the line-up next year. You could have Mark Ballweg at 141, Matt Ballweg at 149 (he was at 157 a few years ago and struggled; evidently 149 is a much better weight for him), Ethen Lofthouse at 174, and Luke Lofthouse at 197. The Ballwegs are brothers, while Ethen Lofthouse is Luke’s nephew.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
They're brothers.
So I guess concievably we could have three sets of relatives in the line-up next year if Nick Moore doesn’t redshirt and goes at 157 and Nate goes at 133.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
I agree with your sentiments, Ross
It’s all about what happens in the room. I’m hoping Cael can show his developmental skills a little better than he could at ISU now that he’s got better and more experienced talent coming in to PSU than he had there. Still, for championship results to materialize, it’s got to start in the room, where Brands has already shown he can get it done. Cael hasn’t yet shown that on Brands level.
Here’s a vid from a 1/10 tourney 145lb final between Andrew Alton and Dziewa, who was wrestling up two spots to face him. Alton won 10-6; it was Dziewa’s only loss on the year. I couldn’t find results from any earlier contests between them. Will be interesting to see if they get to faceoff down the road in college.
"So while while I may be douchy, I’m not rusty."
I just read that another Ballweg is incoming this year
Intermat’s #27 recruit, Jacob Ballweg.
"So while while I may be douchy, I’m not rusty."
Yep.
We have Ballwegs coming out our ears.
Although, I am a mite jealous that PSU signed a dude named DIRK COWBURN. That’s a great name, although perhaps better-suited to our ag school friends to the west, if he’s getting up to tomfoolery with bovines.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
It gets better
He’s the best of our ‘Too Country’ (/terrell pryor’d) recruits, for Mr. Dirk Cowburn hails from Coudersport, PA. Dude looks like he could totally rassle some cattle.
It sounds as if that is as rural as it sounds (/redundant’d?), for he wrestled AA and had to really get around to get practice time against top competition. Apparently, he often drove down Central Mountain to get in the room with the Altons. He had a pretty decent HS career, tho hiccupped with some injuries (knee, staph infection), won 152bl titles as a SO & JR. This year, he dropped a regular season match when he went up to 171 for the team, then lost in the state final in a brutally disappointing (for all involved) 1-0 to Lehigh-bound Eric Hess. I’m guessing a def redshirt this year, and we’ll see if he can crack the lineup in 2011.
"So while while I may be douchy, I’m not rusty."
Wow.
Is “Coudersport” pronounced “cow-dare-sport” or “coo-der-sport”? I’m betting the former, but really really really hoping the latter.
"I want to be a cowboy. I don't want to be a panda. Pandas are boring, stupid and boring. Bad panda!"
I just had to look it up
It’s “kou-durhs-port”
Such a shame.
"You don't become a Hawkeye fan, You're born with Black and Gold in your veins." - Me
by BStylin Hawkye on May 7, 2010 2:58 PM CDT up reply actions
I know it's not a defining blow
But I would’ve liked to see him back based on the experience he gained this year. I was hoping him and McDonough would have been able to lead the team well through the “reloading” they will be doing this year. With that said, he needed to go, letting him stay would’ve been a terrible precedent by Brands.
They took the bar, the whole fucking bar!
by recoveringfratguy on May 5, 2010 7:29 PM CDT up reply actions
So you're saying
that if we see someone listed as the “Des Moines Drunkard” on the Iowa depth chart next season who just happens to wear a lucha libre mask, we should consider all things possible?
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
Right move
This is the right move, obviously he had been given every chance and blew it. I would like to see him transfer to another school, not in the Big 10 or Big 12, do well and stay out of trouble.
Best of luck to you MM, hopefully you can get your head on straight, get wrestling again and get a free education out of the deal.
Adrian Clayborn is strong enough to pull the ears off a Gundark
by The Bacon Explosion on May 6, 2010 10:12 AM CDT reply actions
I am not worried about the team
because there are a lot of options here. But it is really a shame that the kid couldn’t keep his shit together. Really a shame.
Life is hard. It's really hard if you're stupid.
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