TOP AREA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES OF THE LAST 30 YEARS: GRETA OLSEN

By Mike Tupa

Aug. 21, 2025

BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT

During his nearly 30 years of covering area high school sports for either the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise or the Bartlesville Area Sports Report, Mike Tupa has enjoyed the opportunity to observe some incredible athletes.

This is an ongoing series highlighting each few days one of those athletes from the 1996-97 school year through the present. The list is not in chronological order. The athletes are presented in random sequence.

TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT

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GRETA OLSEN (Bartlesville)

Multiple sports

Olsen might have earned more state medals or cumulative state championships than any Lady Bruin athlete in history.

She ran on four state championship girls cross country teams and swam on four state championship girls swimming teams.

That adds up to eight state championship teams. We’ll look at the medal tally a little later.

Olsen didn’t seem motivated by the chase for glory but rather the quest for ultimate potential and team success.

She played a vital role in Bartlesville’s four consecutive state cross country titles.

She finished in the top 15 in each of those state finals — including fifth place in 2015 and eighth place in 2016. She burst into the top three for the Lady Bruins each year (third, 2014; third, 2015; third, 2016) and second, 2017).

When it came to swimming, Steward burst to four individual gold medals (50 freestyle, 2018), (100 butterfly, 2018, 2017, 2016).

She also earned another seven gold medals as part of relay teams (200 medley, 2015, 2016, 2017; 200 freestyle, 2016, 2017, 2018; 200 medley, 2018).

That added up to 10 state gold medals during her Lady Bruin swimming career, along with being part of the state championship squad each season.

In addition, she collected three state silver medals.

None of this includes all the regional and regular meet gold medals Olsen gathered during those four seasons, as well as all her achievements with the Bartlesville Splash Club.

After high school, Olsen continued her competitive swimming pursuits for the University of Kansas women’s team.

During her junior season (2020-21) she scored 24 points individually at the Big 12 Championship meet and finished in the top four in five dual meets.

She also received the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award.

She burst to the fastest team time (2:00.38) in the 200-yard butterfly at the Big 12 Championship meet in 2019-20. She also won the Big 12 silver in the women’s 100-yard butterfly.

Olsen always seemed to step up when competing on the biggest stage.

In the 2022 Big 12 Championship meet, Olsen finished third in the bonus final (:55.63) of the women’s 100 butterfly.

Obviously, Olsen belonged to a remarkable class of Lady Bruin athletes in the mid-to-latter 2010s. But her combination of competing for both the cross country and swimming teams made her virtually unique — not to downplay her great success in both.

Add to that the reality that she could have captured multiple state track medals had she chosen to skip spring swimming for track.

Olsen remains a top-notch figure in the history of Lady Bruin sports.

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This series has included the following athletes, who are listed in no particular order

-Jena’ Williams, Bartlesville

-Eric Rolfs, Bartlesville

-Chris Smith, Caney Valley

-Jill Bryan, Copan

-Barron Tanner Jr, Bartlesville

-Hailey Tucker, Bartlesville

-Jeremy Dunkle, Dewey

-Whitney Metcalf, Bartlesville

-Tim Hamilton, Bartlesville

-Danielle Koster, Bartlesville

-Carson LaRue, Dewey

Greta Olsen