Chris Pendleton always wanted to compete at two tournaments during his time as a college wrestler at Oklahoma State:

One was the Midlands, where the two-time national champion even offered to pay his own way as a senior in hopes of wrestling against the likes of post-graduate Joe Williams, a three-time NCAA champ at Iowa.

The other was the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational — perhaps better known as CKLV.

“I always thought it was a fun opportunity,” Pendleton said. “Who doesn’t want to go to Vegas?”

Two decades later, he gets to decide his own schedule — now as a head coach at Oregon State.

The fifth-year boss of the Beavers program spoke with FloWrestling about CKLV and various other topics while en route to the Portland airport on Wednesday morning.

As for Pendleton’s message to his team before they left Corvallis for Las Vegas?

“This is an opportunity to come and make a name for yourself.”

‘We Didn’t Know What We Didn’t Know’ 

The first month of this season has been anything but a cakewalk for the Beavers.

With eight new faces in the lineup, Oregon State (#30 in Flo’s latest team tournament rankings) has already squared off against a pair of elite opponents — #2 Iowa and #3 Oklahoma State.

It was a group that in many ways was forced to analyze and improve itself in real time without the benefit of significant experience to lean upon.

“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” said Pendleton of this early-season journey.

“I think that when you wrestle two of the top three teams in the country, you find out about yourselves really quick. And I was very pleased with how we approached each match, how we competed in the matches.”

Losing the duals by a combined margin of 66-10 obviously wasn’t the outcome the team would’ve hoped for. However, several nip-and-tuck matches could’ve easily flipped in Oregon State’s favor against the Hawkeyes and Cowboys.

For that reason, as well as the overall competitiveness of his squad, Pendleton is feeling optimistic as the calendar turns to December:

“I’ve been very pleased with our progress so far and knowing that we have three more months to continue to develop and get better really excites me and the other coaches.”

Renteria And Stiles Add Firepower As Full-timers In Oregon State Lineup

Two wrestlers Beaver fans will surely be excited to see more of are Maximo Renteria and Ethan Stiles.

That’s a sentiment shared by their head coach, who describes the first-time starters as “geeked up” when it comes to competing.

“They’re pacing five days before, talking about a competition,” Pendleton said.

“It’s actually a hidden thing. There are some people that don’t really get excited about competition. They put too much pressure on themselves and almost get into a sense of dreading competition.”

“Those guys love to compete — and not only do they love to compete, they want to wrestle the best guys. They flat out are wired a little bit different. They want to go against the best in the world, and they really believe that they can beat them.”

Neither Renteria (5-2) nor Stiles (6-1) have gone unblemished so far this season — but both easily could be.

At 125 pounds, #11 Renteria’s only defeats have come in sudden victory to #4 Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State) and by one point to #2 Caleb Smith (Nebraska). And at 157, #20 Stiles also dropped a sudden-victory match of his own — against returning Nebraska All-American, #7 Antrell Taylor.

The best news for both is that they could get the chance to avenge their defeats in short order, as Nebraska and Oklahoma State will join the Beavers in a loaded CKLV field this weekend.

(More on that in a bit.)

Munoz Making Adjustments At A New Weight

If Renteria and Stiles are the exciting new additions to the structure that is Oregon State wrestling, Trey Munoz is the bedrock at its foundation.

The two-time All-American (third in 2024) and three-time Pac-12 champion enters his final year of college wrestling hoping to end an already great career on the highest of notes. To do so, he’ll need to make the proper adjustments to a brand-new weight class.

Munoz (ranked #7 at 197 pounds) took a pair of losses in the month of November.

A 9-5 defeat to #1 Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) opened his senior season, followed two weeks later by a 5-0 loss to #12 Luke Surber (Oklahoma State).

“It’s obviously been taking him a little bit of an adjustment period just learning how to wrestle the bigger weights, learning how to feel their bodies and knowing what he’s capable of doing,” said Pendleton of the most credentialed and recognizable wrestler for the Beavers.

“Even looking at the Buchanan match, it was a learning situation for him that (moving up a weight) he was right on the cusp of beating the #1 guy in the country.”

Moving forward, the hope is that the senior can draw the necessary lessons and confidence to emerge victorious when these high-caliber matchups occur in the future.

“If anything, he just needs to take confidence from those losses, saying, ‘Hey, I’m right there. I’m not out of the ballgame,” Pendleton said. “I’m able to go out there and all I have to do is make some minor adjustments and these matches are won by me.”

Once again, there’s no time like the present to put things to the test.

Exactly half of the top 20 wrestlers in Flo’s latest rankings at 197 pounds will join Munoz in the field at CKLV.

Collecting Data

A phrase that repeatedly comes up while talking with Pendleton is “collecting data.”

He attributes a large part of that to his previous coaching stop at Arizona State.

“I think that term came from working under (Arizona State head coach) Zeke Jones,” Pendleton said. “He’s a master technician and one of the things he likes to say is the numbers really don’t lie a lot of times.”

The former pupil has since carried that approach over to his own program in Corvallis. Whether it’s an established star like Trey Munoz or an up-and-coming wrestler looking to make his name on the collegiate scene, he wants them to be analytical when it comes to their flaws.

“We’re really big on our guys taking ownership of their careers and starting to say, ‘Hey, these are the areas that are beating me,” Pendleton said. The fifth-year coach emphasizes that his athletes having a sense of ownership of their own career(s) can be far more meaningful than something coming from him or his staff.

“There’s nothing better for me as a coach than when an athlete comes to me and says, ‘This is what I want to work on. This what I need to do to get better.’”

Promising Days Ahead

While data collection and subsequent improvements will help define success for Oregon State this season, they’ll also be key to how far the program can rise in the future.

Two major components of that future are already on campus — spending 2024-25 in redshirt.

Both Aden Attao (Greco-Roman) and Justin Rademacher (freestyle) brought home bronze medals for Team USA at the recent U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. And they figure to make an instant impact on the Beavers’ lineup come next season at heavyweight and 197 pounds respectively.

“He’s going to be a force,” said Pendleton of Attao, who’s on the mend from an injury sustained at U20 Worlds. “You’re already seeing his body change, getting the horsepower up.”

As for Rademacher — a 2024 NCAA qualifier as a true freshman — his coach sees similarly big things on the horizon:

“I think Justin’s development has been at an astronomical rate,” he said. “We knew that he was going to be special. We just didn’t know how fast that was going to happen.”

Described by Pendleton as “coaches’ dreams” both on and off the mat, Attao and Rademacher will team with the likes of Maximo Renteria and Ethan Stiles to form a salty spine of the Oregon State lineup in 2025-26.

Add in the possible return of two-time NCAA qualifier Matthew Olguin (165) — pending approval of a medical hardship waiver — and the Beavers have plenty to look forward to beyond this season.

Vegas, Here We Come

As previously mentioned, Oregon State joins a who’s who of programs headed to ‘Sin City’ for this weekend’s Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

Asked if there are any of his wrestlers or weight classes he’s most looking forward to, Pendleton instead focuses on the opportunity in front of whomever takes the mat for the Beavers. 

“This is a great chance to go make a name for yourself. Go get yourself in the high-end rankings. Go get yourself the media love and the highlights and the Instagram fame and all that.

“I think that CKLV definitely is the most NCAA-caliber tournament in the country,” said the man who never got the chance to experience it for himself as an athlete all those years ago.

Now leading his own team into the fray in Vegas, the message is simple:

“Be excited about the opportunity.”

Watch Oregon State home duals this season live on Flowrestling.