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    Mark Palmer •

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    Newspaper names Oregon State all-time wrestling team

    Who are the all-time greatest wrestlers for a particular college wrestling program?

    It's a loaded question, sure to stir passionate debate even among wrestling fans who have never set foot on that school's campus.

    Les Gutches (Photo/Larry Slater)
    The sportswriters at the Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times were up for the challenge, as they selected a dozen wrestlers -- and six alternates -- to Oregon State's all-time great wrestling team, presented in a flip-through, photo-gallery format.

    What does it take to be named among the best Beaver mat stars of all time? A conference title -- or, better yet, an NCAA championship -- would appear to be the basic price of admission to the Gazette-Times' list. (It also appears that being an upper-weight wrestler weighs in one's favor.)

    The list goes back nearly a century, with two 1924 Olympic medalists with ties to Oregon State making the team. Most of the other honorees wrestled in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

    Here are the Gazette-Times picks for its all-time Oregon State wrestling team, in sequential order, earliest to most recent:

  • Chester "Chet" Newton -- 1924 Olympic silver medalist wrestler who later coached at what was then called Oregon Agricultural College
  • Robin Reed -- 1924 Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler ... three-time AAU (American Amateur Union) champ in the early 1920s ... and coach at OAC
  • Don Conway -- 1961 NCAA champ at 167 pounds ... three-time Pacific Coast Conference champ ... sixth place on the Beavers' all-time winning percentage (.909) with a 40-4 record
  • Jess Lewis -- two-time NCAA heavyweight champ in 1969, 1970 ... 1968 Olympian in Greco-Roman ... No. 1 in win percentage (.987) with a 76-1 mark
  • Jim Crumley -- three-time NCAA All-American at 177 pounds (1970, 1971, 1973) ... three-time Pac-8 champ. Later an assistant coach at Oregon State in the 1980s
  • Roger Weigel -- 1971 NCAA champ at 134 pounds ... three-time Pac-8 titlist
  • Greg Strobel -- two-time 190-pound NCAA champ (1973, 1974) ... NCAA Outstanding Wrestler, 1973 ... second in win percentage (.958) with a 124-5-1 record. (Later head wrestling coach at Lehigh University.)
  • Larry Bielenberg -- 1975 NCAA heavyweight champ ... four-time NCAA All-American ... 94 falls ... ranked fifth in win percentage (.914)
  • Dan Hicks -- two-time NCAA champ at 142 pounds in 1978, 1979 ... No. 7 in win percentage (.898) with a 108-11-3 record
  • Howard Harris -- 1980 NCAA heavyweight champ ... 1980 NCAA Outstanding Wrestler ... four-time NCAA All-American ... ranked No. 1 in career wins (169) .... No. 2 in pins (87) ... tenth in win percentage (.871)
  • Babak Mohammadi -- three-time NCAA All-American (1991, 1992 at 126 pounds; 1994 at 134)
  • Les Gutches -- two-time NCAA champ (1995, 1996) ... 1996 NCAA Outstanding Wrestler ... three-time All-American ... No. 4 in win percentage (.931) ... 1996 Olympian, 1997 World freestyle champ
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