RHS’s Sutton Odegard looks to close out high school weightlifting career in grand fashion

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - This week’s ABC7 Athlete of the Week is Riverview High School’s (RHS) Sutton Odegard. She’s a senior and competes on the Lady Rams girls weightlifting team.

She and some of her teammates are preparing for the state meet that’s happening this week in Lakeland. It will be her first and only time competing for the ultimate state prize for a high school lifter, and she’s ready to tie a bow on this journey the right way.

“Now, really getting to state on my last year is kind of sentimental in a way,” Odegard said. “It’s kind of an end of an era. I’m excited. I’m just ready to have some fun on the last meet.”

What makes this even more impressive is that Odegard is in the biggest weight class that the girls could be in to compete and make it this far. “I’m a little bit nervous, but kind of excited to end on a good note,” Odegard said. “Just kind of, have fun as much as I can and enjoy the last bits of it.”

Weightlifting began as a hobby for Odegard as a way to spend time with her father. “I would just go to the gym with my dad and lift weights with him,” Odegard said.

When she learned she could do this competitively, it changed everything for her. “I didn’t even know we had a team really. Finding out that I could do it and help out the team and sport, it was bittersweet pretty much.”

Odegard’s head coach, David Catalfino, says he got the feeling that she could be great at this just based off of who she was as a student. “I had Sutton in class her freshman year,” Catalfino said. “It became pretty evident early on that she was somebody who was going to work hard, and enjoyed working hard.”

Odegard and one of her teammates Estanie Bornelus, are preparing to cap off their high school journeys. Bornelus says this resembles something that’s cinematic.

“It feels like a movie,” Bornelus said. “When we started off, I didn’t even know she was in my class our freshman year. Then, we went out for track. Since then, we’ve just been very close.”

A the state meet approaches, Odegard wants everyone to know that none of this is possible without the work that she also puts into the classroom.

“I strive myself to be an A student,” Odegard said. “I have put a lot of work into being a student-athlete, and not just an athlete.”

We’ll keep you updated on how Odegard and all of the Lady Rams perform in the state meet.