Ron Beaschler

By Tim Glon

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Ohio Northern wrestling coach Ron Beaschler was inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame during the NWCA banquet on Thursday evening in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The ceremony took place the evening before the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships got underway Friday and Saturday.

A McCutchensville, Ohio, native, Beaschler is the chairperson of the Human Performance and Sport Sciences department at ONU. He also is an assistant professor in the department and coordinates the sport management program at Ohio Northern.

He served as chair of Division III NCAA Wrestling committee for two years, was the president of the NWCA, which represents all collegiate and scholastic wrestling in the United States and was the Division III representative on the NWCA executive board of directors.

Beaschler currently serves as the Weight Management Program liaison to the NCAA Wrestling Committee.

In his 20 seasons at the helm of the ONU wrestling program, Beaschler’s teams have posted a 194-154-4 record.

Beaschler is the all-time winningest coach in ONU history and also has the longest tenure as head wrestling coach at ONU.

During his time at ONU, Beaschler has coached two National Champions, two National Runners-up, 13 All-Americans, 27 Scholar All-Americans and five Scholar All-American Teams.

He was named OAC Coach of the Year by his peers in 1993.

His teams have won six OAC titles and his squads are a league-best 45-10 in OAC dual meet competition since the inception of the current regular season round-robin format in 2000.

Beaschler graduated from Ohio Northern in 1986 with bachelors degrees in management and sports management. He received his masters degree in education from Bowling Green State University in 1988 and is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Toledo.

This season, Beaschler coached senior Ben Plowman to his third consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. He has competed at 174 pounds each of the past two seasons and was at 184 pounds as a sophomore in 2006.

Junior David Penny is competing in his second straight NCAA Tournament this weekend. He won the OAC title in 2007 in the 125-pound weight class and was the league’s at-large representative after a runner-up finish this year.