Fit to wrestle for a title, and to change the world for the better

Oregon State redshirt senior Mateo Olmos is gunning for his first Pac-12 championships at 174 pounds    (courtesy Jim Thrall/OSU athletics)

His career record at Oregon State — 41-42 — may not impress you.

His resilience, his drive, his academics, his character, his maturity — that just might.

Aaron “Mateo” Olmos is in his sixth season wrestling for the Beavers. The redshirt senior carries an 8-6 season record at 174 pounds into Sunday’s 8 p.m. meet at Gill Coliseum against Pac-12 rival Arizona State, the 19th-ranked team in the country.

It is an important match for Olmos, 23. But it is only a small part of his story.

“There is a lot of promotion going on when you are a coach,” OSU coach Chris Pendleton says. “You always speak highly of the kids on your team. But Mateo? He is going to change the world for the better one day.”

Olmos would never say that, of course. He is a humble, modest young man who lets his actions speak for themselves. And those actions speak volumes.

Olmos went 16-9 last season, albeit with a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Pac-12 Championships, and earned status as a Scholastic All-American. The native of Imperial Beach, Calif. — a town of 26,000 located five minutes from the Mexican border — was looking forward to a big senior year in 2022-23.

But last summer, he began having pain in the areas of his abdomen, pelvis and back.

“Doctors didn’t now what was going on,” Olmos says. “On top of that, I was struggling mentally with anxiety, depression, from the pain and from life taking its toll.”

Finally treatments began to help, and he got himself ready for the season.

“A lot of it was through meditation and taking time for myself through prayer in my spiritual life,” he says. “I was on a healing journey all summer, figuring out my way. In the fall, I started seeing a counselor here on campus.”

Olmos flew to Philadelphia with the Oregon State team for its season opening dual with Lehigh, scheduled for Nov. 5. That morning came terrible news. His father, Mario Olmos, had died. By suicide. He was 62.

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Mario Olmos was a popular figure in the suburb of San Diego in which he and his family lived. He was a talented guitarist and vocalist who was a member of a local band.

“Dad was big in the community as a teacher for 32 years and as a wrestling coach,” Mateo says. “He was my coach, my teacher. We were really close. He was the best dad.”

Mateo knew his father’s emotional health wasn’t good.

“My dad was going through it,” he says. “I didn’t expect he was going to commit suicide, but we knew he was struggling with anxiety. But suicide? Crazy, honestly. Something I wasn’t expecting to happen.”

Mateo tried to convince coaches to let him wrestle with the Beavers that night against Lehigh.

“It was too much of an emotional toll,” Pendleton says. “We got him a flight from Philly to San Diego the next day.”

Mateo flew home to be with his mother, Lisa, and two younger sisters. He stayed through the Nov. 18 memorial service. A day earlier, Mateo hosted a prayer vigil for his father.

“We have a big family — dad had six sisters and brothers,” Mateo says. “It’s very hard for me.”

The day he arrived, Mateo set up a GoFund me account to help defer burial and funeral expenses. The goal was $30,000. As of this week, the amount raised was nearly $32,000.

“I didn’t want him to do it initially, but Mateo is a person who writes and puts himself out there,” says his mother, who was married to Mario for 25 years. “I didn’t want to hinder his therapy. He insisted, and I’m so glad he did, because it helped us out so much immediately. We didn’t have the funds. I had no idea how much it costs to bury someone and put on a memorial service.”

It wasn’t the first GoFund me account Mateo had started.

“He asked his dad for his bank account number, so he could start one so he could go to a wrestling tournament in Fargo (N.D.),” Lisa Olmos says. “He raised $850 to do it. He was 12.”

On Nov. 19, Mateo flew to Oregon — and learned he had Covid.

“I missed three weeks of practice before I was able to wrestle again,” he says.

Olmos’ first action of the season came at the Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 2-3. He struggled to find a rhythm until he upset the nation’s No. 4 wrestler at 174, Dustin Plott, 9-4 in a dual against Oklahoma State on Jan. 8. That earned him Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week honors and began a five-match win streak that he carries into Sunday’s meet against the Sun Devils.

“Mateo is wrestling really well right now,” says Pendleton, in his third season at the OSU helm. “Having that hard start to the year didn’t help him right out of the gate. He had to knock off a lot of rust. He is catching up on his conditioning.

“But he is starting to find a little bit of something, understanding the flaws that have held him back. He is becoming more and more coachable. We are telling him, don’t let the little things slide, remember and continue to grow and develop.”

Says Olmos: “It has been a great year for me so far. I have had a lot of firsts. I have had a lot of great wins. Considering everything that’s happened, I took some losses to top guys but have some wins over ranked wrestlers. The trajectory is looking good, and I’m feeling good about it.”

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Olmos began wrestling under his father’s tutelage at age five. He has learned to love the sport.

“You can take it and make what you want of it,” he says. “There are so many unique people you meet that can make their own story. No matter what your size or ethnicity or background, it is your story to make on the mat. You’re going for your own destiny out there. Sure, you have help from teammates and coaches, but you’re making it happen on your own. You’re the one leaving it all out there.”

Mateo, a 3.9 student in high school, was two-time conference wrestler of the year. Nobody had to remind him that college was next.

“When he was 10, he started talking about what colleges he wanted to go to,” his mother says. “When he was 12, those colleges changed. When he started getting recruited, he visited six schools. Oregon State was the last school, and after that it was 100 percent he knew he wanted to be at Oregon State. He said, ‘Mom, this is the school for me. I just know it. I feel it.’ ”

It took Olmos awhile to make his mark on the mat at Oregon State. He redshirted in 2017-18. As a redshirt freshman in 2018-19, he was 9-15 overall and placed fourth in the Pac-12 Championships at 165 pounds. In 2019-20, he was 12-15 at 165 and took fifth in the Pac-12s. He wrestled sparingly due to injuries in 2020-21, going 4-3, but came back for a strong season as a junior last year.

In Sunday’s dual, Olmos is expected to face Cael Valencia, a redshirt freshman with a 7-8 record.

“He is a tough kid who comes from a prestigious wrestling family,” Olmos says.

His oldest brother, Zahid, was a two-time NCAA champion who was 121-3 during his career at ASU and is a member of the U.S. world team. His other brother, Anthony, was a two-time All-American.

“I’ve never wrestled the kid,” Olmos says. “I’m excited to wrestle him. He has a lot of skills, but I’m excited to show what I’ve got out there in a big dual.”

Sunday’s meet will match the favorites to compete for the team title at the Pac-12 Championships March 4-5 at Stanford. Oregon State won the championship five straight years (2012-16), but Arizona State has won five of the last six years. Last year, the Sun Devils edged the Beavers by a half-point for the crown.

“We’re going to be gunning for the title this year,” Olmos says. “This year, we have a special team. We’re going to be coming for it hard.”

Olmos has enjoyed wrestling for Pendleton after competing his first two seasons under his predecessor, Jim Zalesky.

“There were so many challenges his first year, the Covid year,” Olmos says. “It’s been great to see the way he has taken the program from there — having a plan and a trajectory for where he wants to go. He is going to fight to get there.

“Our program has grown, not only in the wrestling aspect, but as a team and how the guys carry themselves, how we care about our lives as student-athletes and our schooling, and also the facilities he is helping get funding to build. Everything ties into how we compete on the mat.”

Olmos’ coach believes the best performances of his career are ahead of him.

“I think anything short of winning the Pac-12 would be a disappointment for him,” Pendleton says.

Olmos confirms.

“My goal is to go the rest of the regular season undefeated and become a Pac-12 champion,” he says. “I’d like to get on that podium at nationals and be an All-American (top eight). But honestly, my goal is to make the most of every moment and be the best wrestler I can be.”

Mateo is dedicating the rest of the season to his father.

“Every match, I’m thinking of him,” he says. “He gives me strength. I ask him for strength every time I wrestle. I pray for him and know he is with me. Every match I wrestle, I’m doing it for him. To still be out there after everything I’ve gone through, it’s a testament to who I am and the sport of wrestling.”

He pauses and has another thought.

“Last year, I had a good season, but it didn’t end the way I wanted to,” Olmos says. “That’s the reason I came back for my final season. There are goals I want to achieve. I am trusting the process, knowing the coaches that much better after a couple of years being with them, having faith and giving everything I got. It is coming together.”

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Olmos didn’t come to Oregon State to just wrestle. He came to grow, in any and all ways.

“I have not been around an athlete more culturally aware and responsible,” Pendleton says. “I am excited to see how that comes to fruition for him later in life.”

That is where some of Mateo’s other attributes kick in.

“My dad was from Mexico,” he says. “He grew up in east LA. Mom is an African-American from LA. Growing up, I was around a diverse group of friends. A diverse culture. Most of my friends were mixed with all sorts of things. That has been my whole life.

“When I came to Oregon, it was a culture shock for me. It made me have to branch out and get uncomfortable and experience things I wasn’t used to. But it also made me want to learn more about my own culture and the history of the United States and the world.

“I come across people who may not believe in things I believe in or even my life as a whole. But I want to be able to educate others, have good conversations, challenge others, change the narrative a little and make the world a better place. There is a lot that still needs to be changed, but we are going in the right direction. I am passionate to be on the forefront of that movement.”

Olmos has been a regular volunteer through his time at Oregon State.

“He is a guy I have to reel in from so many positive type extracurricular activities,” Pendleton says. “He cares almost too much. He cares about being involved in the community. He has been a part of almost everything during his time here. He is all about getting out in the community and helping people who have nothing to do with wrestling — often with underprivileged kids who need a better way of life.”

Olmos is currently involved with “Elevate Oregon,” a program that works with at-risk youths in middle school and high school in the Portland area.

“I did my internship with them toward my public health degree,” he says. “Now I am a grant director with a black student success program. I help provide resources to allow them to do things such as college visits, workshops, summer camps and receive mentorships from students at Oregon State.”

Olmos graduated with a 3.76 grade-point average and a degree in public health last spring. He has applied to San Diego State for graduate work.

“I’m looking to be in the college of public health there and continue my academic career,” he says.

Once academics are over, Olmos would like to coach wrestling at the high school level and work as a director of youth programs in the community. Or perhaps work for a non-profit organization, or start one on his own.

“I’d love to mentor youth and mold them to be model citizens,” Olmos says. “They might not come from the best family situations or are having trouble in school, but I would like to help give them an opportunity to find their avenues to grow as human beings and get them ready for college and the real world. I am excited for the next chapter of my life.”

It all makes his mother’s heart swell.

“I’m so super proud of him in every way,” she says. “He stepped up from being a young boy who was kind of misunderstood in elementary and middle school to this amazing young man that any mom would hope or wish for.”

As a youngster, Mateo got in trouble with teachers for talking out of turn or blurting out answers to questions. In fifth grade, however, he got high marks on the annual proficiency test given to every student.

“See Mom?” he said. “And they think I’m not listening.”

Oh yes he was. And now others are starting to listen to him.

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