Seth Duckworth
Olivia Brown continues to rack up National wrestling awards as Wednesday she was named the National Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award Winner.
Just one week after being named the USA Today National Wrestler of the Year, Brown became the first Oklahoman ever to win the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award.
From the release
First presented in 2014, the TSHSEA is named for Saunders, a four-time World Champion and women’s wrestling pioneer. Saunders was the first woman to be inducted as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2011.
The TSHSEA recognizes and celebrates the nation’s most outstanding high school senior female wrestlers for their excellence in wrestling, scholastic achievement, citizenship, and community service.
The daughter of Michael T. Brown and Suzanne M. Caruso, Brown was an Oklahoma state girls champion in 2021 and 2020 for Broken Arrow High School. The top-ranked 200-pound wrestler in the National Girls High School Rankings, she will continue her wrestling career at Grand View University.
Brown was Miss Wrestling Oklahoma in 2021 and was named the Joey Miller Wrestler of the Year in 2020. She was a National Cadet champion in freestyle and folkstyle in 2018 and 2019. Brown finished second at the Folkstyle Nationals in 2019 and fourth in 2018 while finishing third at Freestyle Nationals in 2019 and seventh in 2018.
Brown received the John and Jonna Cockrell Award of Excellence in 2020 and was also named Most Valuable Junior Wrestler for Broken Arrow in 2020. She was Wrestler of the Year at Holland Hall in 2018. She was team captain for Broken Arrow from 2019 to 2021 after being team captain at Holland Hall from 2017 to 2019.
A National Honor Society officer, Brown was AP English Student of the Year in 2019-20 and Magna Cum Laude in 2018-19 and Maxima Cum Laude in 2017-18 for the National Latin Examination. Brown placed second in Business Law and Ethics, sixth in Entrepreneurship and seventh in Quick Service Restaurant Management at the Oklahoma D.E.C.A. competition.
Beginning in 2017 as a core volunteer, Brown is very involved with BrightSpot Mobile Family Services, an organization that delivers free meals directly to people who live in food deserts, meaning there is no access to fresh food within three miles. During the pandemic, Brown walked miles to help deliver groceries and meals to those in need. She has also organized clothing drives and created personal hygiene bags for teenage girls while encouraging other teens to get involved and bringing them to volunteer. Viewed as a group leader by BrightSpot administrators, Brown helps set up monthly outreaches and interacts and assists residents. She also served on the Diversity and Inclusivity Council at Holland Hall.
