ISU track and field sprinter Derron Montgomery was arrested and charged with serious domestic assault Thursday night.

Montgomery said he went to get his hair braided on Thursday evening and his girlfriend, Queen Murray, was unaware of where he was. Montgomery said Murray attacked him when he got home, throwing a laptop in his vicinity and then standing over him and punching him in the chair he was sitting in.

Montgomery called the police, who saw a cut on Murray’s leg when they arrived, which Montgomery said was because he “pushed her into the doorway” trying to protect himself.

Montgomery was arrested and spent the night in jail, but said Murray did not press charges.

“My girlfriend, she’s not a bad person or anything like that,” Montgomery said. “Just for some reason that day she was just out of line, and it came out of nowhere.”

The difference between simple and serious domestic assault is “basically blood,” said Shannon Krupski of the Ames Police Department.

Krupski said if the injury was bad enough to cause bleeding, it would be elevated from a simple to a serious or aggravated assault charge.

Montgomery said he was held out of the weekend’s Drake Relays because of the incident, but coach Corey Ihmels felt Montgomery handled the situation correctly.

“I talked to Coach Ihmels, and he said from what I said – it sounded like I did the right thing – I didn’t attack her or anything. I called the police and tried to calm things down,” Montgomery said. “He said I wouldn’t be able to run at the Drake Relays because of that situation. It just happened, you know.”

Jared Lewis replaced Montgomery in the distance medley relay on Saturday at the Drake Relays, which Montgomery was scheduled to run the 400-meter leg of the race.

Saturday, assistant coach Ronnie Williams said Lewis “needed the race, and Derron is not training well. So we decided to go ahead and let Jared get the rep and not let Derron get the rep.”

The ISU athletic department declined comment on Sunday evening. Montgomery said he had a meeting with the coaching staff scheduled on Monday morning to further discuss the situation.

Montgomery is also a member of the ISU football team, although a series of ACL injuries forced him to shift his focus to track.