From the corner chair

New wrestling qualification standards good

The new qualification standards for the NCAA wrestling tournament were needed and, after some tweaking, will be a good thing for the sport.

Awarding conference on past performance was not the way to do it, especially when they were based on five-year-old results.

This year's qualifications are based on season-long performance, which means a wrestlers can't take a night off or can't hide from a top opponent.

The three areas the NCAA looked at are: 1. Won-loss record; 2. RPI; 3. Coaches rankings.

Wrestlers are rated as meeting a gold (all three categories) or silver (two of three) and earn spots for their respective conference or regional qualifier.

It can be confusing, but, in a nutshell, the better regular season you have, the better competition you have, the better off you are.

And you know what? The better off the sport is, too. It makes every dual meet, every tournament, every competition important.

I wrote a story about this in June from the U.S. Olympic Trials and another for the NCAA championships program.

It's a good deal and should help the sport.

Hawks suspend Marion

University of Iowa red-shirt freshman Montell Marion has been suspended from the wrestling team indefinitely after a “legal incident in Indianola,” the university announced Thursday.

“I’m very disappointed in the recent actions of Montell Marion,” Iowa Coach Tom Brands said in a release. “I am suspending him from the team for an indefinite period of time.

“Montell has already expressed regret for his actions.”

Brands said he would meet with athletics director Gary Barta and associate AD Fred Mims to determine a course of action.

Marion, 10-3 at 133 pounds this season, admitted to breaking out windows on two cars, according to a police report in Indianola.

Amazing Metcalf honored

From the University of Iowa Sports Information Office:

PARK RIDGE, Ill. - Iowa 149-pound wrestler Brent Metcalf has been named Big Ten Wrestler of the Week. It is the third time the junior from Davison, Mich., has earned the honor in his Hawkeye career.

Metcalf picked up the final weekly honor of the 2008-09 season after extending his winning streak to 61 matches with two Big Ten road wins last weekend.

The Hawkeye junior scored a 19-4 technical fall over Indiana's Nick Walpole on Friday night and pinned Northwestern's Andrew Nadhir in 4:28 Sunday afternoon.

His performances helped top-ranked Iowa post an undefeated 24-0 dual meet record for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. Metcalf also helped Iowa capture the 2009 Big Ten regular season title with a perfect 8-0 in conference record. He ends the regular season with a perfect 29-0 record. He has pinned 15 opponents and scored bonus points in 27 of his 29 bouts this season.

Metcalf is the fourth Hawkeye to earn the honor this season. Senior Alex Tsirtsis (141) was named Dec. 9 after the Iowa-Iowa State dual, junior Dan Erekson (Hwt.) followed on Jan. 27 after wins against Wisconsin and Illinois, and junior Daniel Dennis (133) was honored on Feb. 10 after recording victories at Penn State and Michigan State.

He and the Hawkeyes will look to defend their conference titles March 7-8 at the 2009 Big Ten Championships. All matches will be held at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center at University Park, Pa.

More on Kurt Warner from ...

... the Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic:

INDIANAPOLIS - The Cardinals and the agent for Kurt Warner appear to be creeping toward agreement on a new contract, but there remains significant ground to cover before free agency starts on Friday.

General Manager Rod Graves and Warner’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, spoke several times at the NFL Scouting Combine in the past few days, and it appears the gap between their points of view have narrowed, at least a little.

Bartelstein is believed to be asking for a deal that put Warner among the top five highest paid quarterbacks in the league, an average of $12 million to $16 million or so.

The Cardinals would like to stay in the $10 million range.

Bartelstein has returned home to Chicago, but the two sides plan to talk in the coming days. Bartelstein declined to discuss details of negotiations but said “a significant gap” remained.

The Cardinals are trying to reach an agreement before free agency begins Friday. They’re confident that Warner won’t listen to other offers because he prefers to remain in Arizona, but they would rather not take that chance.

Sun Times: Warner will be back

Brad Biggs of The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Cedar Rapids' Kurt Warner will return for the 2009 NFL season after leading the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl this past season.

Here is an excerpt from Siggs' story:

INDIANAPOLIS — The Bears could have their final shot at Kurt Warner, as unlikely as that scenario is.

That’s if the two-time MVP makes it to free agency, which opens next Friday. Warner definitely will return to football in 2009, his agent Mark Bartelstein told the Sun-Times this afternoon.

“He’s decided he’s going to play,” Bartelstein said. “He’s made up his mind. He wants to play and he always wanted to play.”

Warner created doubt about a return, however, after the Arizona Cardinals lost Super Bowl XLIII to Pittsburgh and before the game he said he was going to listen to what God had to say to him.

“Any time you are in your 30’s and you finish a season where you have that long of a year going through the Super Bowl, you always want to take a second to take a deep breath and digest where you’re at and make sure you are doing it for the right reasons,” Bartelstein said. “He loves to play. He loves to compete and obviously he’s still one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL.”

Expectations are that Warner will return to the Cardinals.

More wrestling on tap

The high school wrestling tournament is the biggest show in the state this weekend, but it's not the only wrestling action.

The college wrestling regular-season winds down this weekend with all three of the state’s Division I programs wrestling final duals.

Top-ranked University of Iowa (22-0), looking for its first unbeaten season since 1999-2000. hits the road for duals today at No. 18 Indiana (6 p.m.) and Sunday at 19th-ranked Northwestern (2 p.m.). Both duals will be carried live by KXIC-AM (800).

Fourth-ranked Iowa State (13-3) hosts 12th-ranked Minnesota tonight at 7 and travels to No. 3 Nebraska on Sunday (2 p.m.). Northern Iowa (8-6), ranked 21st, is at South Dakota State on Saturday and North Dakota State on Sunday.

Iowa’s fifth-ranked Charlie Falck (18-2) has a big weekend at 125 pounds, meeting defending Big Ten and NCAA champion Angel Escobedo tonight and fourth-ranked Brandon Precin on Sunday. Falck is 2-2 against the third-ranked Hoosier, 2-1 against Precin.

Iowa’s Brent Metcalf, the defending Big Ten and NCAA champ at 149, is on quite a run. He has won his last 58 bouts and his last 14 duals wins have ended with a major decision, technical fall or pin. He has 14 pins this season, including six of his last seven matches.

The top match for ISU this weekend is at 197 Sunday when top-ranked Cyclone Jake Varner (23-1) meets Nebraska’s second-rated Craig Brester (27-2).

UNI All-American Moza Fay (24-1) is ranked fourth and continues to lead the Panthers. He is 114-9 in his career.

Fayetteville fun ...

Wow! That was a good show the Arkansas track and field team put on last night.

The Tyson Invitational opened with Galen Rupp, a senior from Oregon, breakinga 27-year-old record in the indoor 5K, finishing second to Bekana Daba in 13 minutes, 18.12 seconds. It was a great race, a great start to a wonderful night for a track fan. Which I was Friday night.

American record-holder Jenn Stucynski won the women's pole vault in a fast event.

This was like an indoor Drake Relays.

UNI senior Tyler Mulder, the reigning indoor 800 NCAA champ, finished third in an elite field, leading the first three of four laps. Former UNI all-American Dorian Ulrey, who followed Coach Chris Bucknam to Arkansas, fell at the start of the final lap of the elite mile after leading the race early.

The Tyson track is fantastic, a 200-meter banked oval. There were Olympians all around.

Today the college events take over.

Brands likes teamwork

In the course of an interview today with Iowa wrestling coach Tom Brands, he made an interesting observation.

Wrestling, by nature, is a very selfish sport. There's not a lot of "teamwork" when two wrestlers are battling for the same spot in a lineup.

He said Daniel Dennis last year wanted the spot held by NCAA runner-up Joey Slaton, but worked hard with Slaton in the practice room and cheered him on in competition to make the team better. He said Slaton is doing the same this year for Dennis.

"You don't see that a lot in wrestling," Brands said.

Brands said Dennis' No. 1 attribute is his loyalty, to the program and his teammates.

Read more about Daniel Dennis in Friday's newspaper and here at GO.

Trip to South Bend

Wow, what a neat town.

My wife and I made a trip to South Bend, Ind., to watch our son, Jack, compete in the Mayo Invitational track meet.

We did a quick tour of South Bend in the car, another walking and jogging along a river that runs through the center of town, and yet another around the Notre Dame campus.

It's a beautiful, historic campus. It was a nice day, but it would have been much better in 70-degree sun instead of 45-degree slush.

The track facility was very nice, too.

I got to watch some fantastic races and saw former Mid-Prairie prep Aaron Stockstell run a 1:51 800 for Alabama. Looks like the same kid who won all those state titles as a high school star.

This week, we're off to Fayetteville, Ark., on our track-and-field journey.

And Gable said ....

As a follow-up to my story on the rising attendance at Iowa wrestling duals, Dan Gable had this to offer:

"We can do better."

Gable returned my call too late to get full comments in the newspaper version of the story, but what he had to say was interesting - if not predictable.

When told the average attendance was more than 8,000, he said "that means there is a lot of empty seats."

That's true, of course, but Iowa wrestling is a big deal in Eastern Iowa and all of Iowa. There's no wrestling venue that can do better.

But at 8,000, that mean's Carver-Hawkeye is half empty - at least - most nights. So Gable's challenge to Hawkeye fans near and far: Come to a home dual, fill the place every time.

Is he dreaming? Probably, but this is the same guy who wanted 10 national champions at every NCAA meet.

Why not think big?