Collegiate national champion Marlynne Deede brings experience, maturity to Iowa women’s wrestling

IOWA CITY — As Marlynne Deede competes on Iowa’s first women’s wrestling team, one would hardly know she "hated wrestling“ in high school.

“All through high school, I didn’t really wrestle a whole lot just because I didn’t enjoy it,” Deede said.

Deede especially remembers a freestyle tournament where there was no girls division, so she wrestled boys in a weight class where the boys were “so much stronger.”

“I had won a match, and then my next two I had lost,” Deede said. “It was like a horrible loss.”

As Deede and her father walked away, her father told her, “We are not doing that again.”

Now as a senior in college, Deede is more likely to be the one dominating on the mat.

The 155-pound wrestler won a National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships title in March before transferring to Iowa to be a part of the Hawkeyes’ inaugural team in 2023-24.

The four-time collegiate All-American’s decision to transfer from Augsburg University, a women’s wrestling power, was not an easy one.

“It took me a couple of months to decide,” Deede said. “Where I was at, I had a lot of good things going. … I really enjoyed where I was at.”

But Deede was eventually sold on Iowa after a “couple of conversations” with the coaches about her wrestling goals in college and beyond.

“Iowa is the place to be when chasing Olympic dreams,” Deede said. “I know that there will be support here after I’m done with my college eligibility.”

Now, Deede is “in a room surrounded by champions that want to continue to be champions.”

“I can look around the room during practice, and I cannot think of one girl that is surpassing everyone else because everyone works so hard,” Deede said. “Any time I get asked about Iowa, I’m like, ‘Those girls work their butts off.’”

Her “main goals” in the immediate future include qualifying for the Olympic Trials in December and winning another collegiate national championship in March.

Along with being a 2023 national champion, Deede also was a member of the U20 national team from 2018-20 and the U23 national team in 2022.

As accolade-filled as Deede’s wrestling resume is, a less tangible quality stands out to Iowa Coach Clarissa Chun.

“Marlynne Deede brings not only experience, but maturity to our room, to our program,” Chun said.

It helps that Deede has been in a similar scenario before. When she arrived at Augsburg in 2019, she was on the first women’s wrestling team there as well.

The first year for a program is “definitely a struggle,” Deede said.

“You’re kind of a guinea pig in a sense,” Deede said. “The coach is working out the kinks. … As the years go on, it gets better.”

The key, Deede said as she works with her second first-year team, is "open communication.“

“We’re all learning,” Deede said. “The coaches are learning. The athletes are learning.”

Back in Springville, Utah — where she attended high school — Deede’s past adversity in the sport has paved the way for future women’s wrestlers.

“When I go back home and see where my high school is at now — they have like 15-plus girls on the team — I’m like, ‘oh my gosh!’” Deede said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com