The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/17/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Annie Miles Senior Heinrich Barnes takes down Jason Chamberlin of Boise State on Sunday. Barnes left his mark at OSU competing in the 2008 Olympics and finishing the Pac-10 season undefeated.

Hitting its 100 year anniversary, Oregon State has created a tradition of wrestling that ranks among the top collegiate wrestling programs in the nation.

Going into the 87th season of its 100 year span, Oregon State currently has an all-time dual record of 932-303-26. Trailing the nations best program, Oklahoma State, by less than 100 dual meet wins. Since 1909, the tradition of Oregon State wrestling has continuously been passed on in winning form.

Before the Pac-10 was birthed, Oregon State was the dominant team in every conference it had been apart of. In the programs first 19 years, only twice were the Beavers not able to take first place in their conference. This streak was ended when wrestling was cut as a major collegiate sport for a seven year span.

From the Northwest Conference to the Pac-10, the squad from Corvallis made sure to always have a leading role in the quest for wrestling dominance. Becoming conference champions in more than half of its seasons as a program, Oregon State laid the groundwork as the most revered contender in the West.

"[Oregon State wrestling] is one of the best, its right up there with Oklahoma State and Iowa State," current head coach Jim Zalesky said. "There is a lot of great history, from all the Olympians to the 18 top 10 finishes, there are only two other teams with over 900 wins."

Oregon State's coaching staff holds the impressive stat of having all 16 head coaches (in the team's history) posting a winning record. Five of these coaches were undefeated in their time in Corvallis, led by Guy L. Rathbun coaching from 1921-1923 and going 11-0-0. While having an undefeated record is quite a feat, it cowers in comparison to the success and importance that Dale Thomas did for Oregon State wrestling as well as for the NCAA.

Coaching from 1957-1990, Dale Thomas recorded an overall record of 616-168-13, making him the winningest coach in NCAA history. In his 34 year tenure at Oregon State, coach Thomas produced conference titles in 22 seasons, finished 14 times in the NCAA top 10, and seven times in the top five as well as producing seven NCAA champions. With his efforts in bringing the NCAA championships to Corvallis, Thomas helped solidify collegiate wrestling as a national sport.

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