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Iowa State’s Marcus Coleman carries a heavy heart into the NCAA Championships
Senior wrestler is seeded 8th and has high expectations
Rob Gray
Mar. 15, 2022 4:09 pm
AMES — Maturity. Tenacity. Toughness.
Those three attributes have helped Iowa State 184-pound wrestler Marcus Coleman evolve into an elite competitor on the mat.
Now Coleman’s relying on his inner strength to process immeasurable grief.
Coleman — the No. 8 seed at his weight for the NCAA Championships, which begin Thursday in Detroit — was informed his grandfather, Michael Andorf, had died from cancer shortly before his March 5 semifinal bout at the Big 12 Championships.
He lost that match, but rolled through the backside the following day to earn third at the Big 12s, setting the stage for a meaningful run at nationals.
“I’m doing better,” Coleman said about coming to terms with the death of his grandfather. “I guess I got a little bit of closure with the memorial. I’m just trying to stay focused right now on nationals and I’ll grieve and do whatever I need to after nationals.”
Coleman is one of nine Cyclones who will compete in the NCAA Championships. David Carr headlines that group as the top-seed and defending national champion at 157. Coleman and 141-pounder Ian Parker are competing in their fourth national meet. Parker earned All-American honors in 2019. Coleman plans to fully climb that podium as a senior, even as he wrestles with a heavy heart — or maybe, in part, because of it.
“He was kind of like a father figure to me,” Coleman said. “He was a man I modeled my life after. It’s just really hard, because he’s one of my biggest fans. I know he was always watching my wrestling every meet, and every time I talked to him, that’s the first thing he brought up, my wrestling. So it’s pretty tough hearing that at Big 12s because he was my biggest fan.”
Coleman has plenty of others — including Carr.
“He’s a great person on and off the mat,” said Carr, who has won 54 straight matches. “And someone that you want to see do well, especially in March. Someone you want to see achieve his dreams, so I’m definitely rooting for him to come out and have a great, great NCAA tournament, and he can do it. If he believes in himself and his offense — and the way he wrestled that backside of the Big 12s, just going out there and just shooting, being relentless, just beating the crap out of guys, if he goes out there with that mindset right away, whew, you’re gonna see a lot of Marcus Coleman at nationals.
“You’re gonna see him dominating and beating a lot of good guys.”
That’s where Coleman’s mindset is now. He plans to honor the memory of his beloved “biggest fan” by doing precisely what Carr described above.
“I think he’s excited now and I think he really gets the zero-and-zero part,” ISU head coach Kevin Dresser said. “So I always say you’ve got to go through a lot of obstacles to get on that podium, and that was an unusual obstacle for him.”
So Coleman’s keeping busy. Keeping his mind off things that aren’t wrestling related. Focusing in on his technique, aggression and making the most of every moment on the mat.
“It’s just a mindset,” he said. “Go out there and get after it.”
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