The Oregon State Beavers wrestling program was established in 1909, competing in

collegiate wrestling Collegiate wrestling (also known as folkstyle wrestling) is the form of wrestling practiced at the college and university level in the United States. This style of wrestling, with some slight modifications, is also practiced at high school and m ...

across 95 seasons since then. Traditionally a national powerhouse, the Beavers won the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

national championship in 1926 (Oregon State's first national championship in any sport) and have won their conference championship 52 times. The team has produced 99 All-Americans, 12 individual national champions, and is associated with five

National Wrestling Hall of Fame The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame for amateur wrestling, headquartered in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2010, it began operating the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. History The museum was awarded to Stillw ...

members. The team has finished their season ranked in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

top 25 on 43 occasions, including finishing 20 seasons in the top 10 and two seasons as national runners-up.

Chris Pendleton Chris Pendleton (born January 21, 1982) is a former American wrestler who competed collegiately for Oklahoma State University. Pendleton won NCAA Division I wrestling titles at 174 pounds in 2004 and 2005 and was a three-time All-American. ...

(Oklahoma State) is the head coach. It will be his first season in 2020–21. He replaces Jim Zalesky. In his 12 years at Oregon State, Zalesky coached 12 All-Americans, won seven

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisi ...

Championships, and compiled a 99-40-2 record while coaching the team to four top 25 finishes including two top 10 finishes.

Dan Hodge Trophy Winners

The

Dan Hodge Trophy The Dan Hodge Trophy is awarded each year to the United States of America’s best college wrestler. The trophy is presented at the end of the season by W.I.N. Magazine (''Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine'') and Culture House. It is the collegiate w ...

is awarded to the nation's top wrestler each season. * 1996 -

Les Gutches Leslie Lyle Gutches (born February 21, 1973, Medford, Oregon) is an American former amateur wrestler and coach. His accomplishments include becoming world champion in freestyle wrestling at the 1997 World Wrestling Championships, the Dan Hodge ...

National Wrestling Hall of Fame members

OSU is associated with five members of the

. *

Robin Reed Robin Reed (October 20, 1899 – December 20, 1978) was an American amateur and professional wrestler, and wrestling coach. Throughout his amateur career he never lost a wrestling match, official or unofficial, to anyone at any weight class. ...

- Inducted 1978 (wrestler and coach for OSU) * Dale Thomas - Inducted 1980 (coach for OSU) *

Jim Zalesky James (Jim) Zalesky (born January 15, 1961) is an American college wrestling coach and is currently the head coach of the University of Jamestown. He was A former head wrestling coach for the Oregon State Beavers. Prior to joining the Beavers, ...

- Inducted 2004 (coach for OSU) *

- Inducted 2009 (wrestler for OSU) *

Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Oregon Sports Hall of Fame The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame honors Oregon athletes, teams, coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to sports in Oregon. The first class was inducted in 1980, with new inductees added in the fall. Operated by the Oregon Sports ...

* Chester Newton - Inducted 1980 *

- Inducted 1980 *

Jess Lewis Jess Lewis (born July 28, 1947 in Aumsville, Oregon) is a retired amateur wrestler and American football player who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Houston Oilers in 1970. He graduated from Cascade High School in Turner, Ore ...

- Inducted 1981 *

Ron Finley Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

- Inducted 1982 * Dale Thomas - Inducted 1991 *

- Inducted 2011

Individual National Champions

OSU wrestlers have won 12 individual national championships. * 1961 -

Don Conway Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON * Don (river), a river in European Russia * Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a ...

(167 pounds) * 1969 -

(Heavyweight) * 1970 -

(Heavyweight) * 1971 - Roger Weigel (134 pounds) * 1973 -

Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Larry Bielenberg Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

(Heavyweight) * 1978 - Dan Hicks (142 pounds) * 1979 - Dan Hicks (142 pounds) * 1980 - Howard Harris (Heavyweight) * 1995 -

(177 pounds) * 1996 -

(177 pounds)

All-Americans

OSU has 99 All-Americans. * 1952 -

John Witte John August Witte (January 29, 1933 – March 17, 1993) was an American football tackle who played one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the ninth round of the 195 ...

(Heavyweight) * 1957 -

John Dustin John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

(177 pounds) * 1958 -

(177 pounds) * 1960 -

Mits Tamura MITS may stand for: *Madhav Institute of Technology and Science (MITS Gwalior), a college in Madhya Pradesh, India *Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, an American electronics company known for the Altair 8800 * Mody Institute of Technolo ...

(115 pounds) * 1961 -

(167 pounds),

(137 pounds) * 1964 -

Len Kauffman Len or LEN may refer to: People and fictional characters * Len (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lén, a character from Irish mythology * Alex Len (born 1993), Ukrainian basketball player * Mr. Len, American hip hop DJ * L ...

(167 pounds) * 1965 -

(167 pounds) * 1966 -

Ron Iwasaki Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

(115 pounds) * 1967 - Jeff Smith (167 pounds),

(115 pounds) * 1968 -

(Heavyweight) * 1969 -

(Heavyweight),

Phil Frey Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root term ...

(145 pounds), Jim Vandehey (167 pounds), Bob Hawkins (137 pounds), Kim Snider (152 pounds) * 1970 -

(Heavyweight), Jim Crumley (177 pounds), Roger Weigel (126 pounds), Bob Tomasovic (150 pounds), Jim Vandehey (167 pounds), Kim Snider (158 pounds) * 1971 - Roger Weigel (134 pounds), Mike R. Jones (158 pounds), Jim Crumley (177 pounds) * 1972 - Tom Phillips (118 pounds),

Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Jim Hagen (Heavyweight) * 1973 -

Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Tom Phillips (118 pounds), Mike R. Jones (158 pounds), Jim Hagen (Heavyweight), Jim Crumley (177 pounds) * 1974 -

Greg Strobel Greg Strobel (August 17, 1952 – October 8, 2020) was an American wrestler, coach, and member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame from Scappoose, Oregon.Gordan Iiams (142 pounds),

Larry Bielenberg Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

(Heavyweight) * 1975 -

(Heavyweight), Doug Ziebart (150 pounds) * 1976 -

(Heavyweight) * 1977 -

(Heavyweight), Dick Knorr (142 pounds), Pat Plourd (118 Pounds), Marty Ryan (177 pounds), Howard Harris (190 pounds) * 1978 - Dan Hicks (142 pounds), Howard Harris (190 pounds) * 1979 - Dan Hicks (142 pounds), Dick Knorr (150 pounds), Howard Harris (190 pounds), Mark Evenhus (158 pounds),

Mike Bauer Mike Bauer (born June 29, 1959) is a retired American tour professional tennis player. Bauer won three singles and nine top-tier doubles titles during his career. He reached a career high singles ranking of world No. 29 in November 1984. Care ...

(126 pounds) * 1980 - Howard Harris (Heavyweight),

(134 pounds) * 1981 - Marty Ryan (177 pounds), Brad Swartz (150 pounds) * 1983 - Jim Baumgardner (190 pounds) * 1984 - Jim Baumgardner (190 pounds) * 1986 -

Jeff Cardwell Jeff Cardwell is an American politician from the state of Indiana. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Chairman of the Indiana Republican Party.https://ballotpedia.org/Jeff_Cardwell Jeff Cardwell at Ballotpedia Cardwell ran ...

(150 pounds) * 1987 -

(158 pounds) * 1988 -

Dave Orndorff Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

(Heavyweight) * 1991 - Babak Mohammadi (126 pounds) * 1992 - Babak Mohammadi (126 pounds), Trent Flack (167 pounds) * 1993 - Trent Flack (167 pounds), Dave Nieradka (126 pounds) * 1994 - Babak Mohammadi (134 pounds), Dan Alar (158 pounds),

(177 pounds), Dave Nieradka (126 pounds) * 1995 -

(177 pounds), Babak Mohammadi (134 pounds), Glenn Nieradka (126 pounds), Chad Renner (167 pounds) * 1996 -

(177 pounds), Oscar Wood (134 pounds) * 1998 - Oscar Wood (142 pounds), Jason Buce (126 pounds) * 1999 - Mat Orndorff (Heavyweight) * 2001 - Eric Jorgensen (157 pounds) * 2002 -

Nathan Coy Nathan David Coy (born July 24, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Welterweight division of the UFC. A professional competitor since 2008, he has also competed for Bellator, the MFC, and Strikeforce. ...

(174 pounds) * 2007 - Ty Watterson (Heavyweight) * 2009 -

Heinrich Barnes Heinrich Barnes (born 12 December 1986, in Pretoria) is a male freestyle wrestler from South Africa. He participated in Men's freestyle 66 kg at 2008 Summer Olympics. He was eliminated in the 1/16 of final losing to Mongolian Buyanjavyn Batzor ...

(149 pounds) * 2011 -

Colby Covington Colby Ray Covington (born February 22, 1988) is an American professional mixed martial artist who currently competes in the welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former Interim UFC Welterweight Champ ...

(174 pounds) * 2012 - Clayton Jack (Heavyweight), Michael Mangrum (141 pounds), Scott Sakaguchi (149 pounds) * 2013 - Taylor Meeks (197 pounds), Scott Sakaguchi (149 pounds), RJ Pena (157 pounds) * 2016 - Amarveer Dhesi (Heavyweight) * 2018 - Amarveer Dhesi (Heavyweight), Ronnie Bresser (125 pounds) * 2019 - Amarveer Dhesi (Heavyweight), Ronnie Bresser (125 pounds) * 2022 - Grant Willits (141 pounds), Hunter Willits (157 pounds), Brandon Kaylor (125 pounds), Devan Turner (133 pounds)

Notable Oregon State Beaver wrestlers

References

External links

Larry Bielenberg Oral History Interview
{{OSUtemplate 1909 establishments in Oregon Sports clubs and teams established in 1909