Brad Penrith was named head coach of the UNI wrestling team on June 21, 2000. Penrith had been the assistant coach at UNI. Penrith served one year as an assistant at Boise State in 1991-1992, spent two seasons at Arizona State from 1989-1991, and was a graduate assistant at the University of Iowa. Penrith won the 126-pound national championship at Iowa in 1986 as a sophomore, and then placed second at 126 in 1987 and 1988. He was a three-time Big Ten champ for the Hawkeyes and was named Outstanding Wrestler at the conference meet in 1986. A 1988 Iowa graduate, Penrith also made his mark on the international level before retiring in 1996. He captured a silver medal at the 1991 World Championships and was the gold medalist at the Pan American Games in 1989 and 1991. Penrith was third at the 1994 Goodwill Games; was a two-time Sunkist Open champion; took the Roger Coulon title in France in 1992 and 1996; was a member of the 1989 U. S. World Team; and took third at the World Cup in 1990 and 1991. He placed third at the 1996 Olympic Team Trials; won the U. S. Nationals three times--1989, 1991, and 1993--and was second at the 1992 Final Olympic Wrestle-Off. He has been involved with USA Wrestling at several levels of coaching. In the summer of 1999 he was the head coach of the United States team that took the bronze medal in team competition at the Junior World Freestyle Championships in Sydney, Australia. A native of Windsor, New York, Penrith was a four-time state place winner in high school, including winning the state title as a sophomore in 1981. He was named the Outstanding Greco-Roman Wrestler at the 1983 Junior Nationals.
Information provided by the University of Northern Athletic Department; edited by Library Assistant Gail Briddle, February 2002; last updated, January 14, 2014 (GP).