| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | January 21, 1982 Lemoore, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wrestling | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Freestyle and Folkstyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | Oklahoma State | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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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. [1] [2] [3]
Pendleton won the 145-pound California state championship his senior year at Lemoore High School in Lemoore, California. His senior year performance in 2000 earned him the Junior Schalles Award as the top high school pinner. [4]
In college, he defeated future two-time NCAA champion, Dan Hodge Trophy winner, and MMA world champion Ben Askren of Missouri for both of his NCAA titles. Pendleton had beaten Askren in the majority of their meetings and provoked controversy after telling a reporter that there was no "rivalry" between them. He is the son of Bill Pendleton of Fresno and Lisa Cervantez of Lemoore. He has two younger brothers who both were wrestlers as well.
In March 2020, he was named head wrestling coach at Oregon State University.
Cael Norman Sanderson is an American former folkstyle and freestyle wrestler who is the current head coach of Penn State's wrestling team. As a wrestler, he won an Olympic gold medal and was undefeated in four years of college wrestling at Iowa State (159–0), becoming a four-time NCAA Division I champion (1999–2002). He is the only wrestler in NCAA Division I history to go undefeated in official matches with more than 100 wins. Sports Illustrated named his college career as the second most impressive college sports feat of all-time, behind the setting of four world records by Jesse Owens in a single hour at the 1935 Big Ten track and field conference championship meet.
Stephen Matthew Neal is a former American football guard who played his entire career for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He is a former world champion in freestyle wrestling and two-time NCAA national champion wrestler at Cal State-Bakersfield. He was signed by the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2001, and won three Super Bowl rings with the team. He is one of a handful of NFL players who did not play college football.
Ben Askren is an American former professional mixed martial artist and former Olympic wrestler.
Cole Konrad is an American retired mixed martial arts fighter. Konrad won a gold medal at the 2005 Pan-American Championships. He won the NCAA wrestling championships in 2006 and 2007 at 285 pounds and finished third at the 2006 World University Championships at 120 kilograms. He was the first Bellator Heavyweight World Champion.
Leslie Lyle Gutches is an American former wrestler and coach. His accomplishments include becoming a World Champion in freestyle wrestling at the 1997 World Wrestling Championships, the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation's best college wrestler in 1996, becoming the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion in the 177 lb. weight division in both 1995 and 1996, earning All-American status in 1994, 1995 & 1996, becoming a member of the 1996 United States Olympics freestyle wrestling team and winning numerous other tournaments and honors.
Michael Najeeb Zadick is an American former folkstyle and freestyle wrestler. He competed in the Men's freestyle 60 kg division at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He lost in the 1/8 finals to Vasyl Fedoryshyn.
Brent Metcalf is an American former freestyle and folkstyle wrestler. Metcalf was a three-time member of the US World Team and two-time NCAA wrestling champion at the University of Iowa.
Established in 1999, both Schalles awards, one for the best collegiate pinner in America and the other, for the best scholastic pinner, are annually presented by WIN Magazine, Cliff Keen Athletics and the NWCA. The award is named after Wade Schalles, one of American wrestling's most storied pinners and a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. During his collegiate career (1970-1974) Schalles set the NCAA record at 109 pins.
Leroy (Lee) P. Kemp, Jr. is a former American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler. Kemp would achieve success at the high school, collegiate, and international levels.
William Michael Zadick is an American amateur wrestler. He won an NCAA college wrestling championship while competing with the University of Iowa and a gold medal at the 2006 World Wrestling Championships in freestyle wrestling.
Troy Nickerson is a former wrestler and NCAA champion out of Cornell University. He is the current head wrestling coach at the University of Northern Colorado.
Jacob Stephen "Jake" Varner is an American wrestler. Varner won the gold medal in the 96 kg category at the 2012 Summer Olympics in freestyle wrestling.
Kyle Douglas Dake is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who currently competes at 74 kilograms. Dake is a four-time and the reigning World Champion, winning back-to-back titles twice, at 79 kilos in 2018 and 2019 and 74 kilos in 2021 and 2022. He claimed a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. During his first World Championship tournament, Dake outscored his opposition 37 points to zero, not surrendering a single point.
Kyle Frederick Snyder is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 97 kilograms. He holds the distinctions of being the youngest Olympic Gold medalist and the youngest World Champion in American wrestling history.
Kyven Ross Gadson is an American amateur wrestler. Currently a senior competitor in amateur freestyle wrestling, earlier Gadson, while wrestling for the Iowa State Cyclones, was a three-time All-American in NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling and won the 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in the 197-lb weight class by pinning future Olympic and World Championship gold medalist Kyle Snyder in his final collegiate match.
Yianni Diakomihalis is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler who competes at 65 kilograms and 149 pounds. In freestyle, he is the 2022 World silver medalist, a two-time US World Team member, the 2020 Pan American champion, the 2019 US Open national champion, and a two-time age-group World champion. As a collegiate wrestler, Diakomihalis was a four-time NCAA Division I champion and four-time EIWA champion out of Cornell University.
Bo Nickal is an American professional mixed martial artist, former freestyle and graduated folkstyle wrestler who currently competes in the UFC middleweight division. In freestyle wrestling, he claimed the 2019 U23 World Championship and the US Open National championship, and was a finalist at the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials and a Final X contestant in 2019. As a collegiate wrestler, Nickal was a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion and a three-time Big Ten Conference champion out of Pennsylvania State University.
Zain Allen Retherford is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 70 kilograms. In freestyle, he is a gold and silver medalist at the World Championships, as well as a Pan-American champion.
Isaiah Alexander Martinez is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 79 kilograms. In freestyle, Martinez is a two-time US Open National champion and was the 2017 US U23 World Team Member. As a folkstyle wrestler, he was a two-time NCAA Division I National champion and a four-time Big Ten Conference champion.
Gabriel Curtis Dean is an American retired freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who formerly competed at 86 kilograms. In freestyle, he was the 2020 US National Champion, a '17 Pan American Championship medalist, and a '14 Junior World Championship medalist. He was also the '15 Pan American Championship runner–up in Greco-Roman. As a collegiate wrestler, Dean was a two–time NCAA Division I champion, a four–time EIWA Conference champion, and a four–time NCAA Division I All-American for the Cornell Big Red.
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