After completing his redshirt season for the University of Iowa, four time state champion Jake Marlin announced that he is leaving the program for North Iowa Area Community College. When asked why he was leaving the University of Iowa Marlin said, “It was a life choice more than anything,” to the Creston News Advertiser. Marlin will be heading to a program which features another four time Iowa state champion T.J. Sebolt as an assistant coach.
Marlin was expected to compete for the 141 spot in the Iowa lineup for the upcoming season and many hoped that he would be able to claim the spot after the 2014-15 season when Josh Dziewa graduates. In the meanwhile Josh Dziewa will again be the favorite to retain his starting spot in the lineup with sophomore Topher Carton as the primary challenger, and sophomore Connor Ryan and junior Jake Kadel close behind him. Coach Tom Brands has a history of redshirting all incoming wrestlers so Seth Gross and Logan Ryan will most likely not be factoring to the starting spot, however if they are able to handle the transition from high school to college well, we could see Brands go against his past history and start one of the two highly rated recruits.