Rademacher rolls, eyes lofty goals

Sophomore Justin Rademacher’s immediate goal is to become Oregon State’s first NCAA champion in 30 years (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)

CORVALLIS — Soon after he arrived at Oregon State in the fall of 2023, Justin Rademacher posted sticky notes with goals at the top of his locker.

“I won’t share his business, but he had five or six goals written down,” OSU assistant coach Cory Crooks says. “At first, people looked at the goals and probably thought he was a little crazy. But there is a checkmark on a couple of them now, and there are a couple more that will hopefully have checkmarks by the time he is done here. Who knows how long before he will have them all checked off?”

U20 U.S. Open champion? Check. U20 World champion? Check.

Rademacher won the U20 U.S. Open championship in August in Bulgaria (courtesy of USA Wrestling)

I’m only guessing here, but I would imagine these goals are also on Rademacher’s sticky-notes list:

• NCAA champion, 2026.

• U.S. Senior Open champion, 2026.

• U.S. Olympian, 2028.

Self-confidence will definitely be on Rademacher’s side.

“I tell myself every day that I am the best wrestler on the planet,” the redshirt sophomore told me in a recent interview. “Not because I won a U20 world title. It is because I truly believe I am the best wrestler on the planet, and I am going to go out there and prove it.”

The West Linn High grad burst onto the national and international scene last season when he was runner-up in the U20 U.S. Open and claimed a bronze medal at 97 kilograms (214 pounds) at the U20 World Championships in Spain.

Rademacher exploded with an array of accomplishments this year, beginning in April by winning the U20 and Senior Pan American titles. Through the summer, he first won the U20 U.S. Open title, then popped the big one by winning the crown at the U20 World Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria. In succession, Rademacher rolled over Turkey’s Ibrahim Benekli 17-8, Greece’s Nikolaos Caravans 9-1, Georgia’s Konstantine Petriashvili 16-5 and Russia’s Magomedgadzhi Magomedov 4-1, earning USA Wrestling’s Athlete of the Week honors.

“It went exactly how I wanted it to,” Rademacher says. “I had a goal and I really felt like I needed to achieve it. Ever since I lost the U20s match (in the 2024 World semifinals), I set the next goal, that I was going to come back here and win it the next year. I trained as hard as I could, went out there and did it.”

Oregon State assistant coach Josh Rhoden, who has known Justin since he was five, is a believer. Through 17 years at Clackamas CC, including 15 as head coach, Rhoden coached five national championship teams and many individual champions. Tyrell Fortune went on to claim a U23 U.S. Open title and Jacob Mitchell won a national Greco-Roman crown.

“Tyrell, Jacob and others had an unrealistic belief in self,” Rhoden says. “To hear Justin say what he said matches what I know about a lot of guys who are elite. We are talking about not just being an All-American or national champion, but about being the best on the planet.

“You really have to understand the work and sacrifice you are willing to put in, and also have to believe in your abilities so much so that you can say things like that out loud. Everybody wants to be an All-American. Very few people are willing to do the quiet part out loud. I don’t think Justin is far off from achieving whatever goals he has set for himself.”

OSU graduate assistant Trey Munoz, a two-time All-American and three-time Pac-12 champion with the Beavers, is a regular training partner with Rademacher. He believes his friend has what it takes.

“Justin has everything that a great wrestler needs to succeed,” Munoz says. “He has all the tools in his box to be the best wrestler in the world. The only gap would be whether he believes in himself or not. By him saying that, well, you gotta be a little bit delusional.

“There’s a line between confidence and cockiness. Confidence is inward. You can tell when somebody is confident by the way they act. You can tell a guy is cocky by the way he speaks about himself. Sometimes he might say it, but also believing in those things comes with doing the actions, like doing the things a person who is best in the world would do. Justin does those things.”

Rademacher is 6-0 heading into Sunday’s Roadrunner Open in Bakersfield, Calif., but the last time out was too close for comfort. He scored a three-point takedown on Utah Valley’s unranked Kael Benne in the closing seconds of a 4-1 victory in the Beavers’ season debut at Gill Coliseum.

“Had to shake some rust off going into the first time back at Gill,” Rademacher says. “I wasn’t setting up my shots very well, moving my feet very well. Something I realized right after the match was I was holding on and squeezing too much and letting (Benne) dictate the pace instead of doing my own thing.”

OSU head coach Chris Pendleton watched the match, and Rademacher’s reaction to it, with interest.

Beavers coach Chris Pendleton says he has enjoyed watching Rademacher mature and “change into a man” (courtesy OSu wrestling)

“It was a good test for Justin, and a good chance to see what happens when he faces a little adversity,” he says. “He very easily could have had three or four takedowns in the first period, but didn’t convert them. He let the kid stay in the match. He got the win, and that was the biggest thing. I wanted to see how the kid responded. Is he going to get rattled? Throw a temper tantrum?

“He might be harder on himself than us coaches are on him. He walked off the mat and he didn’t want to look me in the eye. He knew he could have been better in his approach and could have been sharper. But I am happy with everything he has been doing. He has been driving the ship as far as raising everybody’s expectations.”

The world championship means Rademacher now has a target on his back.

“He is going to get everybody’s best shot, which is what we saw (against Renne),” Rhoden says. “(Opponents) have a game plan for him. They are not going to let him get to his best stuff; they are going to run from him.”

So Rademacher must find a way to cope with this conundrum directly related to his achievements. It’s the next challenge that he must conquer if he is to continue to scale to the top of the wrestling world.

The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.

Rademacher’s introduction to wrestling came when he was practically knee-high to a grasshopper. He was four or five, his brother Jack four years older, “and we were messing around, wrestling in the house all the time,” Justin says. His parents, Steve and Denise, figured it was time for two restless boys to take the act elsewhere. Steve had been a wrestler at Clackamas CC.

Says Justin: “My Dad was like, ‘You guys are going to go to wrestling practice. You’re going to get this energy out somehow.’ ”

Triple Crown Wrestling became the boys’ home away from home.

“Immediately, I was having fun,” Justin says. “I loved to fight and roughhouse with the other kids. Got some energy out, and I was able to sleep better at night.”

Steve Rademacher also brought his boys for visits to the Clackamas CC wrestling room.

“Justin was a sweet kid, man, and always worked really hard,” says Rhoden, who coached Jack at Clackamas. “The part that he never had to learn was the ‘work hard and be tough’ part. It’s hard to teach kids those skills. He was always a tough kid.”

Justin had a sterling career at West Linn High. He placed third in the state 6A meet as a sophomore, second as a junior and finally won a title in the 182-pound class as a senior, pinning Westview’s Jason Cephus in the championship match to finish the season 44-1. Rademacher’s prep career record was 147-13. Yet he didn’t get much attention from college recruiters.

“Winning only once is why nobody among the (highest-ranked programs) recruited him,” Rhoden says. “Then when he placed third in the (U.S.) U20s at 18, some coaches were asking, ‘Who the heck is this kid?’ ”

“Justin flew under the radar as a high school prospect,” says Oregon State head coach Chris Pendleton, “but we saw a huge upside to him.”

Rademacher says he talked with coaches at some California schools -- “I was a little too dumb for Stanford,” he says self-deprecatingly — and at one point strongly considered a full-ride offer from Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa.

“I was also thinking about Oregon State — close to home, great school, great wrestling program,” Rademacher says.

Pendleton’s hole card was Rhoden, who had been Justin’s club coach and had just been hired as an assistant on the OSU staff.

Says Rademacher: “(Rhoden) was joking around with me one day and said, ‘If I ever get a job as a D-I coach, would you come with me?’ I said, ‘Oh yeah, totally.’ Then he got the job here. A week later, he called and was like, ’So I got the job at Oregon State. You’re coming with me, right? You’re my first call.’ That sealed the deal for me. I was already seriously thinking about coming here, but that wrapped it up.”

Rhoden hasn’t been surprised by Rademacher’s rapid development.

“He has always loved wrestling and put a lot of time into it,” says Rhoden, a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association Wrestling Hall of Fame. “When I was at Clackamas and he was in high school, he trained with us and wrestled our guys. Not everybody wanted to wrestle with him. He wasn’t where he is at now, but he was always long and difficult positionally and did a good job. He was hard for guys to wrestle against.”

► ◄

Rademacher arrived at Oregon State with plenty of ambition and ability. He was also fearless. It was fortunate for the long run that ahead of him on the depth chart was the veteran Munoz, who ended his career last season with a record of 96-23.

“The summer before he was an incoming freshman, Justin came to the Oregon State wrestling camp,” Munoz says. “He was around my weight, so he said, ‘Let’s wrestle.’

“A college wrestler going against an incoming freshman … you can imagine it didn’t go well for him. After we finished practice, he goes, ‘Dang. I got Munozed.’ Fast-forwarding to now, it is like the guy is on completely another level. It has been awesome to see.”

Rademacher’s progression was stunning.

“He started developing rapidly, faster than any athlete I have ever coached,” says Pendleton, in his sixth season at the OSU helm and his 16th in collegiate coaching after winning two NCAA titles as a wrestler at Oklahoma State. “The biggest compliment I can give Justin is he is one of the most coachable kids I have coached. I don’t know if I have ever shown him something or offered advice that he didn’t apply pretty quickly.”

Rademacher says he is gratified with the coaching he has gotten from the likes of Pendleton, Rhoden, Crooks and former assistant Nate Engel.

“When I got here, the coaching staff really took me over the little hump I had to get over,” Rademacher says. “My time in this program has been amazing. Couldn’t ask for anything more. Coach Pendleton and the rest of the coaches treat me so well. I love it here.”

Rademacher finished his freshman season with a 12-7 record and was Pac-12 runner-up, earning a spot in the NCAA Championships.

“Part of that early development was getting to be around Trey and seeing how he goes about his day,” Rhoden says. “There were a lot of days Justin was picking Trey to wrestle with him. Wrestlers usually want to take a day off once in awhile. I don’t think Justin thinks that way, which makes him unique. He is like, ‘I want to find the best guy I can, train with him. Even if I get beat every day, I know where it can take me.’ Trey was invaluable to him in that year and a half before we saw him win a world championship.”

Crooks sees it the same way.

“Most guys who come in as a freshman test the waters and slowly get better,” he says. “Justin came in here and was hunting down the best guys. Trey helped him a lot as a young kid. Justin didn’t want to just be like Trey; he wanted to be better. He took a lot of lumps from Munoz as a young freshman. Now he is trying to turn around and give everybody else in the room those same whippings.”

Doubling Munoz’s significance: He was a roommate of Rademacher for his first two years at Oregon State.

“We’re pretty close — literally — and very good friends,” Munoz says with a chuckle. “I have watched him develop from a pretty small freshman to the wrestler that he is now — and the person he is now. It is amazing to see the transformation.”

This season, as Munoz helps out as a coach and completes student teaching requirements at Crescent Valley High, they spar at least twice a week. They had an epic match with a referee last month on the day of the preseason Beavers’ wrestle-off. Rademacher won 2-1. In overtime. On a stalling call.

“I can get him once in awhile; he gets me once in awhile,” Munoz says.

“I wouldn’t be as good as I am without Trey,” Rademacher says. “I would like to think he wouldn’t have accomplished as much as he has without me pushing him. We all need someone like that — someone who is going to push us every day and be a great partner.”

Like Munoz, Rademacher is an Academic All-American, with a 3.75 GPA majoring in finance. Like Munoz, he is a Christian. Trey says he has enjoyed watching Justin — who won’t turn 21 until May — mature as a person.

“As a freshman, he was more reserved and quiet, but he has opened up quite a bit since,” Munoz says, adding with a laugh, “he is actually a little bit funny.”

Pendleton has noticed the maturity, too.

“It has been fun watching Justin develop not only as a wrestler, but change into a man,” he says. “He went from a very shy kid to someone who can now talk a little smack to the coaches. I chuckle about it. He is a great kid who we are overjoyed to have in the program. His parents have done a phenomenal job raising him.”

► ◄

Another important component to Rademacher’s success has been the mentorship of Crooks, who transferred from Arizona State to Oregon State for his senior season in 2021-22 to be with Pendleton, an assistant while he was with the Sun Devils. Crooks was 17-11 and made the NCAA Championships as a senior, then joined the coaching staff in 2023. One of his first assignments was to coach Oregon’s entrants in the U20 U.S. Open.

“I coached Justin during his transition from high school to college,” Crooks says. “I got to sit in the corner when he got third in Fargo (N.D.). Ever since then, I have worked a lot with him.”

Crooks traveled with Rademacher to Spain when he finished third in the U20 World Championships in 2024. This year, he has accompanied him to Peru for the Junior Pan American Games, to Mexico for the Senior Pan American Games and to Bulgaria for the U20 World Championships — all events in which Rademacher stood atop the victory stand.

“I have been fortunate enough to travel the world with him,” Crooks says. “Sometimes we maybe spend a little too much time together, but we have gotten to know each other pretty well.

“As he gets older, he becomes more of a leader. He is a coach’s dream, a role model for our team members and the young guys coming up in Oregon. He is a kid brought up in Oregon wrestling who shows people that you can be the best in the world by staying right in your backyard.”

Pendleton, Rhoden and Munoz all spend time working with Rademacher, but Crooks is the closest thing to his personal coach.

“Cory does such a good job in teaching technique and tactics,” Rhoden says. “He has a great mind for the sport. He understands what Justin needs. I have poured a lot of time into him over the years, but getting different types of coaching and a different perspective is so important for growth.

“I am a high-energy guy. Cory has the ability to relate to him and be a calm presence. That relationship they had through last summer is good for Justin.”

The bronze medal in Spain in ’24 “felt good, but it was bittersweet,” Rademacher says. “I was training to be a world champion. I wanted it really bad. I ended up getting it this year.”

Last season was a redshirt year for Rademacher, who saved a season of eligibility and focused on his national and international competitive schedule.

“It was tough at times not to be competing in (Oregon State’s) meets,” he says. “It’s winter and you think, ‘I wish I were out there with those guys wrestling.’ But it was good for my progression.”

In the offseason, Oregon State added Daschle Lamer, a friend since their days together in kids wrestling. Lamer, a Corvallis native, transferred after finishing as Pac-12 runner-up at 184 as a freshman at Cal Poly. He will become academically eligible sometime in December.

“Daschle has been my best friend since childhood,” Rademacher says. “It has been fun to have him back. We help each other out a lot.”

How does Rademacher describe his wrestling style?

“Apply pressure, fast-paced, keep moving forward, trying to score as many points as I can,” he says. “The way we teach it is, go out there and score some points early. Then (opponents) will put themselves under you, and it’s easy to get go-behinds.”

“That’s a big part of wrestling. If someone puts himself under you and shoots, you have to attack. You have to arm-drag off and go behind, or snap and go behind. (Pendleton) talks about it being the easiest way to score in wrestling. It’s important to have in my arsenal.”

Says Pendleton: “Justin has a good blend of power and explosion and an eagerness to learn and be great. He is deceptively quick. When he goes from zero to 100, he can turn on a dime. That is not always the case with big men.”

Rademacher possesses “a good blend of power and explosion and an eagerness to learn and be great,” Pendleton says (courtesy OSU wrestling)

Indeed, Rademacher is a big man, with arms the size of Sequoia trunks.

“We have a great strength program here at Oregon State,” he says. “That has helped me out a lot. In our lifts, you get out of it what you put into it. You have to push yourself to get stronger.”

In the international competitions, Rademacher doesn’t have to cut weight. That is not the case in college matches, when he is wrestling at a weight about 17 pounds lower.

“I usually walk around at about 210,” he says. “It’s not too bad. I can lose 10 pounds in two workouts. I am not as strong as I am at 215, but I still feel like I am pretty big and strong at that weight.”

For now, Rademacher is a college student, renting a house close to campus with teammates Grant Gambrell, Joel Adams and Moses Mirabal and former teammate Ricky Bell.

“I like to hang out with my roommates, friends and teammates,” Rademacher says. “I got into pickleball this summer. That was really fun. I just like to spend time with people.”

Rhoden is sold on Rademacher as a person.

“I love Justin,” he says. “My family has known his family for a long time. He has always been an excellent student, a great kid, easy to talk to, giving of his time. When I write letters of recommendation (for employment) for guys I really believe in, the highest (compliment) I can give is, ‘I would let you watch my children.’ Justin fits into that category. I would trust him with my kids.”

•

Rademacher’s immediate wrestling goal is to become Oregon State’s first NCAA champion since 1996. It is anything but a lock. The two major college wrestling websites judge him quite differently. FloWrestling has him ranked No. 5; Wrestlestat sets him at No. 15. (If there are 14 college wrestlers at 197 better than Rademacher, I’ll eat my Bravuro Cellars sun hat.)

“I don’t pay too much attention to those rankings,” he says. “The guys who are writing up those rankings, they are not out there wrestling. That’s not what I am focused on. What I like to do is go out there and beat up on the guy in front of me.”

OSU’s last NCAA titleist was Les Gutches, a two-time 177-pound champion in ’95 and ’96 who went undefeated both seasons and claimed the Outstanding Wrestler Award as a senior. Rademacher has met Gutches, who lives in Corvallis.

“He is still a giant man,” Rademacher says, with some awe. “It is empowering to be around guys like that.”

Rademacher wants to follow Gutches’ lead.

“I want to be the champion, undefeated, win every match I can,” he says. “Go out there and put more fuel on the fire and get all I can take.”

His goals go beyond that. He would like to win the Senior World Championships in Bahrain in September of ’26.

“And then I am shooting for the 2028 Olympics (in Los Angeles),” he says. “Everything is practice for the Olympic Games.”

Rademacher’s goals include a Senior World title in 2026 and representing the U.S. in the 2028 Olympic Games (courtesy USA Wrestling)

Crooks is a believer.

“When Justin first got here, the goal was probably to be an NCAA champion,” he says. “I am not sure how much he even truly believed that. After the last two years, his goals are now bigger than that.

“I try to keep his mindset the same every single day, but he now believes he could be an Olympic champion, which is pretty cool to see. We are keeping him on track, focused on the task at hand and getting better every day. And hopefully in 2028, he will get his chance.”

► ◄

Readers: what are your thoughts? I would love to hear them in the comments below. On the comments entry screen, only your name is required, your email address and website are optional, and may be left blank.

Follow me on X (formerly Twitter).

Like me on Facebook.

Find me on Instagram.