The Riverside Press-Enterprise
OLIVIA LOPEZ
Hamilton, senior
Olivia Lopez never has been a wrestler to take the easy road.
Lopez, a senior at Hamilton High School, located in the remote town of Anza, could have switched weight classes late in the season to avoid another showdown with one of the best pound-forpound wrestlers in the entire nation.
“I wanted to challenge myself, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could compete with the best,” Lopez said.
Lopez suffered her first loss of the season to Walnut’s Anaya Falcon in a championship match at the prestigious Queen of the Hill Invitational in December. Lopez made it her goal to earn a rematch with Falcon at this year’s CIF State Championships. And that happened, as Lopez and Falcon squared off for the state’s 105-pound title.
Falcon cruised to an 8-0 win to finish her high school career with a 118-0 record. But that loss in no way spoiled a spectacular season for Lopez, who captured a second CIF Southern Section individual title along with a second Masters Meet co-championship. Her runnerup finish at state was the best for Inland girls wrestler this season.
For these reasons, Lopez has been selected the IE Varsity Girls Wrestler of the Year.
Juan Lopez, Olivia’s father and her coach at Hamilton, said living in an isolated area has provided challenges.
“She doesn’t have the high-caliber partners to work with every day like some of the other top wrestlers around,” Juan Lopez said. “We sometimes have to seek out those opportunities, which means having to travel quite a bit.”
But there also have been plenty of benefits, Juan said.
“Getting to coach her has really made our relationship so much stronger,” he said. “And in a small town and at a small school like this, there’s not much else to do. There are fewer distractions, so it is easier to stay focused.”
Olivia began wrestling when she was 7, but the start of high school career was delayed twice. Lopez did not get to wrestle as a freshman because of the pandemic, and her sophomore campaign was wiped out because of injuries. She burst onto the scene as a junior and placed third (at 101 pounds) at her first CIF State meet.
Olivia describes herself as shy by nature, but she displayed a different personality during her senior season.
“I’m not one to put myself out there, but I wanted to show myself and everybody else what I could do,” she said.
And that new attitude was beneficial for the entire program.
“Last year, Olivia kind of kept to herself and didn’t really speak up very much,” Juan Lopez said. “That was not the case this year. She really stepped up and even ran a lot of our practices. She wasn’t afraid to be that leader. We really want to build this program up, so having someone like her that everybody can learn from is valuable.”
One of Lopez’s more impressive feats this past season was a fifth-place finish in the 106-pound bracket at the Riverside County Championships. She is believed to be the first girl to reach the podium in the history of that tournament. Lopez finished the meet with a 5-2 record, with three of those victories coming by way of pin fall.
Lopez also is a standout in the classroom and will have the honor of being Hamilton’s Class of 2024 valedictorian. She enjoys spending time in the library, with science fiction and fantasy novels among her favorite works to read.
“Academics always have been the most important thing,” she said. “I’m a student first, and an athlete second.”
Lopez has received interest from a handful of colleges with women’s wrestling programs, but she has not made a final decision. And there is a possibility Lopez will choose a college that does not have a girls wrestling program.
“I will definitely miss it if I don’t wrestle in college,” she said. “Wrestling has taught me so many lessons over the years. It helped me mature as a person and showed me just how hard you have to work to reach your goals.
“Even if I don’t wrestle in college, I will find a way to stay involved and try to help others achieve their dreams.”