Beaver Dam RTC adds Mallory Velte and Alex Glaude to roster
by Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling
Photos by Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com.
CORVALLIS, Oregon – Oregon State head coach and Beaver Dam RTC president Chris Pendleton announced on Thursday the addition of 2018 Senior World bronze medalist Mallory Velte and 2018 U23 World bronze medalist Alexandria Glaude to its athlete roster.
The two have come full-circle as they were once high school teammates in California.
They will train alongside other women’s freestyle stars, including five-time World champion Adeline Gray and two-time World bronze medalist Alyssa Lampe as well as men’s freestylers Isaiah Martinez and Mike Kosoy.
Mallory Velte
Velte is a two-time Senior World Team member at 62 kg, representing the USA at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships. She scored a bronze medal at the 2018 World in Budapest, Hungary. Additionally, Velte owns a gold medal from the 2020 Pan American Championships and a silver form the 2019 Pan Ams.
For the last several years, Velte has been training in Vancouver, Canada, at her college alma mater, Simon Fraser University, where she was a three-time WCWA national champion.
“It is a very exciting time to be joining the Oregon State RTC, seeing what they are building from the ground up,” Velte said. “The entire coaching staff are big proponents of growing women’s wrestling; from Nate Engel to Chris Pendleton to Mike Kosoy and Isaiah Martinez, and make me feel very supported. With advocates like these, I do not have to continuously fight the good fight, and can focus on honing my craft. The entire Oregon State program has also embraced me and welcomed me as part of the Oregon State family. I know with the support of the Beaver DAM RTC, the sky is the limit for me. It is serendipitous being situated halfway between my childhood home of Sacramento and adult home of Vancouver, with my high school teammate and longtime friend Alex Glaude, joining the women trailblazers Adeline Gray and Alyssa Lampe. The future of Beaver DAM RTC is limitless!”
Alex Glaude
Glaude is a two-time National Team member and competed on the World stage for the United States at the 2017 Junior World Championships and 2018 U23 World Championships. She collected a bronze medal at the U23 level. She also has top-three placings that the Bill Farrell International and Dave Schultz Memorial International.
Glaude joins the Beaver Dam RTC from McKendree University in Illinois, where she was a 2019 WCWA national champion and a 2020 Cliff Keen WCWC Women’s Nationals champion.
“I am so grateful to have found a new home with the Dam RTC,” Glaude said. “My time in Illinois with Coach Sam Schmitz and the McKendree Bearcat program helped me to grow as a wrestler and person. I loved my time there and the family I became a part of. I graduated in 2020 and due to Covid, it was uncertain where my wrestling journey would take me next. After the Dam announced themselves as an RTC, I had a gut feeling to reach out. After my first conversation with Coach Nate Engel, I just knew it would the place for me moving forward. It is crucial to have coaches that you trust and are supportive of not only their athletes, but the growth of women’s wrestling as a whole. The Dam coaching staff made me feel so welcomed from the start along with the men’s team. The RTC doesn’t feel separate from the college program, it just feels like one program- one family. I feel incredibly blessed to train alongside pioneers of the sport- Alyssa Lampe and Adeline Gray. Further, it’s so heartwarming to train with my high school teammate Mallory Velte, who has been a part of my journey since the very beginning of my wrestling career. Our lives have paralleled in a way that belongs in storybooks. As high school basketball rejects, we found ourselves as skilled on the mat. She continued her journey at SFU and mine at McKendree. A visit home to Sacramento brought us together again and I shared with Mal my desire to train at the DAM (I was secretly hoping she would go too). I was ecstatic to hear she was considering to! Fast forward a few months & here we are! Wrestling is an extremely difficult sport but with the right people behind you, it becomes a life experience unlike any other. I am so excited for this next step in my career and I can’t wait to see how life continues to unfold!”