There’s no ‘quit button’ anymore in Ethan Stiles

Redshirt freshman Ethan Stiles has taken the college wrestling world by storm over the last month and a half, defeating four opponents ranked in the top 10 at 149 pounds (courtesy Cade Patton/OSU athletics)

Updated 3/4/2025 7:20 PM, 3/8/2025 5:15 PM

CORVALLIS — If it is late at night on the Oregon State campus and a light is on in the Dale Thomas Wrestling Room, it may not be a janitor mopping up.

Odds are it is Ethan Stiles, doing another solo workout, chasing his dream.

“Sometimes he calls me at midnight and says he is going up to get a workout in by himself,” OSU assistant coach Cory Crooks says. “The dude is always in there. He is up there almost every night, getting work in almost more for his mind than anything.”

“I like coming in here and working out at midnight,” says Stiles, a redshirt freshman who has thrust himself into contention for the national championship at 149 pounds this season. “I will get on the treadmill or the (stationary) bike and look at one of those Beavers (murals) on the wall and tell myself, ‘I am not going to hit that quit button.’ ”

The “quit button” is mental imagery provided by Oregon State head coach Chris Pendleton, a two-time NCAA champion during his wrestling days at Oklahoma State. Pendleton provided Stiles with food for thought after an 11-10 loss to Wyoming’s Gabe Willochell on Jan. 19, Stiles’ first match of the season at 149. He led 9-2 before faltering in the third period.

“Coach Pendleton took me aside and told me about my quit button,” Stiles says. “When things get hard, most people press the quit button. It’s like, ‘I’m done. I quit.’ I had that quit button, not just in wrestling but in life. When things got tough even outside of wrestling, I would get frustrated and check out.”

Since that day, Stiles hasn’t lost a match. He goes into Thursday’s Pac-12 Championships at Gill Coliseum as the No. 1 seed at 149. Stiles (14-4) has gone from unranked and largely unheralded six weeks ago to a No. 5 national ranking as perhaps the hottest wrestler in his weight class.

When the NCAA Championships are held from March 20-22 in Philadelphia, he fully expects to be standing atop the podium on the victory stand.

Stiles hopes to be standing on the winners’ podium at the NCAA Championships (courtesy Dave Nishitani/OSU athletics)

Updated 3/4/2025 7:20 PM

“I want a national title,” Stiles says. “I want it this year. It has been a goal of mine from the time I was maybe eight or 10 years old. This is something I want. This is something I am going to get. I know this belongs to me. This is my destiny — to win a national title. I know I can do it this year. The only person who can beat me is myself.”

Such self-confidence, his coaches agree, is Stiles’ greatest asset. Combined with an aggressive attitude and unusual innate ability, it makes him a dangerous commodity on the mat.

“If there is one person in the country who fully believes in himself, it is Ethan Stiles,” assistant coach Nate Engel says. “He lives and breathes wrestling and wholeheartedly believes he is going to win every time he goes out there.”

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To know Ethan Stiles, one must first understand his background. He is a city kid, the youngest of three boys raised by a Chicago cop, Lawrence Stiles, and wife Jeenah, a native Romanian.

“My dad is a straight-edge dude,” Ethan says. “He has always believed in doing the right thing. Growing up in Chicago, I had a lot of friends who were good kids in elementary and middle school, but now they have taken the wrong path, and some of them aren’t alive anymore.

“Dad put me into the sport of wrestling. He knew that keeping me active and on track would lead to success in life.”

His mother, too, has been a motivating force.

“I was really good coming out of middle school,” Stiles says. “I won the World U15 freestyle title in Budapest.

Shortly after that, Mom had breast cancer. It was a horrible time for me and my family. But she fought through it and is OK now.

“That has been an inspiration to me. All of my family members are fighters. We don’t quit. That’s something I learned. When you get knocked down, when things aren’t going your way, you get up and get on that horse again.”

It turned out the boys were good at wrestling. Older brother Jake wrestled two years at Oklahoma. Ethan wrestled last season at Nebraska before his transfer to Oregon State. He grew up in the Edison Park area on the Northwest side of Chicago, but attended high school in the suburbs. As a senior, he attended Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory in Kingston, Pa., a prestigious wrestling school that won national prep team titles in ’20, ’22 and ’24.

Soon it was on to Nebraska, where he fashioned a 15-3 record, mostly in open competition, while wrestling behind Ridge Lovitt at 149 and Antrell Taylor at 157. This season, both are ranked No. 4 in their weight class for the Cornhuskers, who are ranked No. 5 nationally.

“I was behind some studs,” Stiles says. “It was a good room.”

That was part of the reason he chose to enter the transfer portal at last season’s end, but not all.

“(Nebraska) also wasn’t fitting me in aspects other than wrestling,” he says. “I was trying to be that college kid, having fun and doing stuff that doesn’t go hand in hand with being a D-1 athlete. I learned that quickly when I came here — you can’t have both.”

Stiles had an opportunity to transfer to a number of big-time wrestling schools. As it turned out, Oregon State presented him with the most complete package — to aid him as a person, not just as a wrestler.

Says Stiles: “I thought to myself, ‘What can the coaches offer? What can the program offer?’ Some schools like Ohio State and Penn State are really good in wrestling, but do you want to go to a body shop where you are just another name?”

After Stiles entered the portal, he received a call from Crooks. He considered ignoring it. His girlfriend talked him into answering.

“And as we talked, Cory had some good things to say,” Stiles says. “So I agreed to take a visit, but I still wasn’t convinced. When I came out to Corvallis, I saw the facilities, saw the team, and I liked what I saw. I also liked the nature around here. Growing up in the city, it’s a lot of buildings, a lot of noise. Here, there are mountains and waterfalls and beautiful scenery.

“When I got out here, I was like, this is pretty cool. It started growing on me. I talked to my parents and said, ‘I could see making this my home.’ So I made the decision, and I don’t regret it one bit. I am doing great. The coaches care about me. I am on the right path. I think I have found my home here at Oregon State.”

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Stiles came to Corvallis as a bit of a rough cut.

“Ethan is definitely a free spirit — 100 percent,” assistant coach Josh Rhoden says. “He is a little eccentric. Super successful people are sometimes. He has his own way of doing things. Sometimes we have had to course correct a little bit.”

Was he difficult at times?

“You can quote my laugh,” Pendleton says. “He had a lot of growing up to do. Luckily, he has had a good support system here that has been very patient with him. Ethan realizes that and will admit he wasn’t the easiest person to be around at first.

“It took a lot of TLC, a lot of patience from Cory, and we have seen the fruits of those labors. One thing I like about the transfer portal: People need second chances sometimes. He is a prime example of why they can be a good thing.”

Stiles doesn’t shy away from self-evaluation.

“Everyone who is successful is a little bit crazy, a little bit different,” he says.

So is he a little bit crazy?

“If you ask everyone else, I think they would say, ‘Yeah,’ ” Ethan says with a smile. “I have a big personality. I don’t do things that a lot of other people do. I have a different stance on a lot of things. I don’t think a lot of people would agree with me sometimes.”

But there is a method to Stiles’ madness. And it has come together during his short time at Oregon State, under the tutelage of his coaches, who seem to have brought about a lifestyle change.

“That is 100 percent true,” Stiles nods. “Here, I feel like we are a family. We care about doing the right thing, which will lead you to success. That is what they have implemented into me here — doing the right stuff, keeping up with my academics, improving my diet, and yes, my lifestyle.”

The crazy part is OK, Engel says.

“He thinks a little crazy, and sometimes you have to be a little crazy to be one of the best guys in the country,” Engel says. “That is Ethan to a T. He has had to change some decisions in his life. With the coaching staff, it has taken some time. Academics have become important. He has three A’s and a B (winter term) right now. He goes to study hall.

“He is living the lifestyle we preach. It took awhile, but now he is seeing the fruit of his labor. He probably doesn’t look at us like we have two heads anymore.”

Crooks, in particular, has taken Stiles under his wing.

“Ethan and I have focused more on an off-the-mat lifestyle mindset,” Crooks says. “We have been building that even more than the wrestling part. The kid can flat-out wrestle. He has IQ, wrestling skills and some of the best self-belief I have come across in my time in wrestling. It is pretty remarkable. He is slowly maturing into a pretty good young man.”

“There was an adjustment period, getting used to our staff and the way we do things, but he has really come around,” Engel says. “The academic piece has been so much better. Having some expectations and accountability has helped him blossom into the guy we see performing on the mat right now.”

Adds Pendleton: “What he is learning as a young person, it is not just what you do on the mat. It is also what you do outside the practice room. It is how you conduct yourself. It is how you live, how you approach your schoolwork. We have been very impressed with his growth as a student-athlete and a human being.”

Stiles doesn’t blame peers who “come here for the reason of being a normal college student.”

“But I don’t chase normalcy,” he says. “I chase success. To do what I want to do, you can’t just want to be the normal person who wants to have a social life. You have to sacrifice some stuff. I learned here that there is a sacrifice I have to make to be at the top. I don’t think everyone else could do what I do, but I have to say, it is a privilege to be able to do this.

“Now I am at Oregon State, getting a great education, building my brand, and it is going to lead to success. I don’t want to be the dude who looks back and tells his kids and grandkids, ‘I should have; I could have.’ ”

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Stiles didn’t start at the top when he began with Oregon State wrestling in the fall. He almost didn’t make the starting lineup for the opener, beating teammate C.J. Hamblin 8-5 in overtime in the preseason wrestle-off for the spot at 157.

Then in his Beaver debut, Stiles dominated Iowa’s Caleb Rathjen — who had gone 20-7 and was an NCAA qualifier in 2024 — to win 12-3, one of two OSU victories against the second-ranked Hawkeyes. On Nov. 17 vs. fourth-ranked Oklahoma State, he beat No. 8 Teague Travis 7-4 at 157 for the Beavers’ only win, earning Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week honors.

The next week at the Navy Classic, Stiles lost to Nebraska’s Taylor 10-5 in the championship match at 157 — no shame there. But then at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas in early December, Stiles struggled. He edged Cornell’s Nate Wade 8-7, fell 17-2 to then-15th-ranked Joey Blaze of Purdue and then was pinned by Harvard’s Jimmy Harrington.

“One of the worst tournaments of my life,” says Stiles, who admits he did not handle it well. “Partially due to a sprained ankle, having the flu and all these assignments due that my academic eligibility depended on, I had such stress. And afterward, my emotions got the best of me. It was not a good time for me.”

Hamblin took over duties at 157 for the next three meets.

“CJ, my home boy, ended up doing well,” Stiles says. “And I was thinking, ‘Do they think he is better than me?’ ”

But the coaches were brainstorming. They wanted both Hamblin and Stiles in the lineup.

“We thought if Ethan could get to a point where 149 was attainable, he would be big and strong at that weight class,” Rhoden says.

They asked Stiles if he would be willing to cut to 149.

“At first, I was wary of the switch,” Stiles says. “I talked to Cory, who said it wasn’t about (Hamblin) or me being better, it was about where I could have the most success.

“I weighed the pros and cons. There were times when I didn’t want to do it. It was hard at first, not eating a lot — I’m a big foodie. But I knew I had to sacrifice. And I thought, ‘If I sacrifice for a few months, I can win a national title.’ ”

The road ahead, however, had minefields.

Says Rhoden: “The caveat was, we looked at the schedule for the next month, and the worst guy he was going to wrestle was the No. 15 guy in the country.”

The first test was Wyoming’s Willochell, no slouch at No. 15.

“I felt good in the first period,” Stiles says. “After that, it was a combination of running out of gas and hitting the quit button. I gave myself that excuse. If my mindset had been different, I could have run up the score on the guy.”

Since then, Stiles has been a runaway train at 149. In succession, he has beaten No. 10 Jordan Williams of Arkansas-Little Rock 5-1, No. 7 Jaden Abas of Stanford 18-8, unranked Brock Rogers of Cal Bakersfield 9-1, No. 6 Chance Lamer of Cal Poly 4-2 and No. 5 Lachlan McNeil of North Carolina 5-3. For the third time this season, Stiles was honored as Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week. He is the only wrestler to win the award in multiple weight classes.

“He has been rattling off quality wins like crazy,” Pendleton says. “Right now, he is wrestling as well as anybody in the country at his weight class.”

“His first match (at 149), we probably thought he was more ready than he was,” Crooks says. “He has been on a hot streak since then. I am trying to keep him grounded. Not too high; not too low. We will see if we can’t rock the last month.”

After the loss to Willochell, Stiles could have fallen into an emotional cave.

“I put so much commitment and effort into my wrestling,” he says. “When I lose, it hurts me really bad. It is almost like the end of the world. I feel devastated, like there is a cinder block on my chest. But Cory said, ‘No worries. You are going to win these next five matches and you will be up near the top of the country.’

“I believed him. Every single one of these matches, I knew I was going to win. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind. I knew these people weren’t doing what I am doing. I have way more confidence than them. I know my abilities. I knew this was going to happen.”

It occurred to me to ask: Could overconfidence ever become an issue?

“I don’t believe overconfidence is a thing,” Stiles says. “If you are too confident and not doing all the things you need to do, then it is a thing. My confidence stems from the stuff I do on the daily. If I were playing video games and eating hot Cheetos and was delusionally confident, then yeah, it could be an issue.”

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Stiles’ wrestling style reflects his self-confidence.

“A lot of times with young wrestlers, going out and attacking can be a daunting task,” Pendleton says. “For Ethan, it is in his mental makeup. He is always on the attack. He is always looking to score. He truly wants to be a great wrestler.”

“The kid wrestles really hard,” Rhoden says. “He does not mind doing the hard things. You see that in most elite guys. If you have to ride a guy hard for the entire period, he will do that. If he has to stay on the leg and scramble through a tough position to get to the spot where he knows he can score, he does that. He defends legs really well. With most freshmen, it is a struggle to get off the mat and they end up stuck on bottom, but he is tough down there. He put up big points against Abas. He beat McNeil, a two-time All-American who made the semis last year.”

“He is unorthodox,” Engel says. “People grab at his head, and most people want to get them off their head, but it works into Ethan’s style. He is going to shoot low for some singles and get into some funky scrambles and come out on top. At 149, he has been able to ride people longer. It gets guys tired. He showed that against McNeil. He had two minutes, 30 seconds of riding time. If you can do that, you’re going to win a lot of matches.”

Stiles feels he has gotten something important from each coach at Oregon State.

“Cory is most relatable to me because he is younger,” Stiles says. “He is not perfect, either. He had stuff he had to overcome and has matured over the years. He understands where I am coming from, what I feel. With Coach Engel, it has been academics. Coach Rhoden instilled in me doing the hard things. Before every match, he tells me, ‘The hard way is the easy way.’ Like 99.9 percent of people aren’t willing to do the hard things. They just want to get by. Even though you are tired and you feel like your heart’s beating outside your chest, are you going to give up, or are you willing to do the hard stuff?

“Coach Pendleton is a great dude. He instills a lot of techniques and positioning. He is the first one to tell me if I am doing good; he is the first one to tell me if I am doing something bad. He looks at the big picture. Yeah, be happy about that win, but is that your ultimate goal?”

Stiles’ ultimate goal is clear: A national championship. The latest coaches rankings have him fifth behind Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech, Shayne Van Ness of Penn State, Kyle Parco of Iowa and Lovitt of Nebraska.

“I am coming for the top guys,” he says. “I am coming for my former teammate (Lovitt). I am coming for Caleb Henson. I am coming for Shayne Van Ness, Kyle Parco. Those are the guys I am taking on. But whatever happens, I am going to finish strong. I am not doubting myself at all.

“It is like a race. People are on your tail. You are either going to keep going or they are going to pass you up. I am passing people up right now. I intend to keep doing that until I am on the top. Then I will maintain on the top.”

His coaches believe he can do it.

“The three days at the nationals is really hard,” Engel says. “You have to be on every single match. It goes back to Ethan and how much he believes in himself. We believe in him as well. He knows he can do it. He has to put together three great days of wrestling in March.”

Rhoden believes Stiles will be prepared for the challenge.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, or let him get ahead of himself, but he can be as good as he wants to,” Rhoden says. “The NCAA Championships are difficult, but he has the right mindset. He knows what his goals are. He is putting the work in. He has been very disciplined. I credit Cory and Chris a lot. Cory works with him a ton. Chris has been on top of that podium. They know how to turn the screws. It helps Ethan tighten things up.

“He is still trying to figure out what all this success means. It is exciting, but it can be a trap. We are trying to help him not backslide as he has success. We have to keep pushing, because he can make gains over the next couple of guys in front of him.”

Stiles has a chance to make history. Eight Oregon State wrestlers have won 12 NCAA championships — four of them twice. The last to reign as champion was Les Gutches in 1995 and ’96. Only one was not a junior or senior when he won a title — heavyweight Larry Bielenberg won as a sophomore in 1975. If Stiles were to win this year, he would be the first Beaver freshman to pull it off.

“Winning at that age is a challenging thing,” Pendleton says, “but Ethan loves and seeks challenges.”

When I mention the possibility to Stiles, he shows little interest.

“I don’t really care about that,” he says. “I just know that I am ready. I am at the point where I am willing to make all the sacrifices I need to. People have too much invested in me. I have too much invested in myself.”

He pauses, then smiles. Coach Pendleton’s imagery comes to mind.

“I will push myself,” he says. “When things get hard, l will think about that quit button.”

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