Former California and NCAA wrestling champion Chris Pendleton gets new job at Oregon State

Pendleton will replace Jim Zalesky.

During Pendleton’s six years as an assistant coach at Arizona State, the Sun Devils won three of the last four Pac-12 titles, including the 2020 championship.

This year, despite a shortened season due to COVID-19, Arizona State was ranked No. 6 nationally. The Sun Devils also defeated No. 1 Penn State.

Pendleton, who won a pair of NCAA titles while at Oklahoma State, won a California State wrestling title while a Lemoore High School senior in 2000. He wrestled for former Tiger coach, Kent Olson.
Pendleton often credits his former coach for much of his success.

“One of the things I know that for myself, one of the things that we learned coming from Lemoore, was hard work, a blue-collar mentality,” he said while attending a wrestling camp in Lemoore in 2015. “You just get out there and roll your sleeves up. A lot of problems can be solved by just getting down and dirty and working hard.”

Pendleton is also a member of the Lemoore High School Hall of Fame.