Fresno State Athletics
Lasting Impressions
3/8/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
March 8, 2000
Lasting Impressions
by Lisa Deaver
Tonya Mendonca-Olivas
admits its been a long time since she competed for Fresno State track and field but her indoor and outdoor records for the high jump still stand. In her fourth year she reached her career best and set a Bulldog outdoor record at 6-1 1/4 and in the following year she set an indoor record at 6-2, both are still standing.
Thirteen years later this former Bulldog is reaching high marks in a new way. Today, Olivas owns her own interior design business in Hanford, Artistic Impressions, and is also celebrating ten years with her husband John Olivas and as a full-time mother to their two-and-a-half-year-old son.
Olivas began competing in track and field in the fourth grade while in elementary school in Visalia, Calif. At Mt. Whitney High School she had the nation's best high school high jump mark at 6-1 as a senior in 1983. Her senior year she was also the team captain and the Mt. Whitney field event most valuable player. While at Mt. Whitney she also competed in cross country all four years.
While at Fresno State Olivas competed from 1984-1988 under former women's head coach Tom Pagani who after 17 years with the Bulldogs retired in 1999. Throughout her five years at Fresno State she qualified seven times for the NCAA Championships, four indoors and three outdoors, and was a two time Pacific College Athletic Association (PCAA) champion. From 1984-1987 Olivas competed in outdoor competition and in 1988 was able to compete only in indoors for her fifth year. Her outdoor school career record in high jump is yet to be broken at 6-1 1/4, her indoor high is also unbroken at 6-2. Her outdoor mark has not been threatened since 1990 when Simone Srubek cleared 6-0.
Her five years here were filled with personal records broken every year. Going into her fifth year in 1988 Pagani said, "Tonya has been so reliable that you knew every time you had a competition that the worst she was going to jump was 5-9. That alone is good enough to win almost any women's collegiate competition. When she's right she's the best in the country. If she can stay healthy, she'll be outstanding. She always has been."
These expectations were placed after four previous years of success. In her first year she set a freshman high jump record of 5-10 that is still standing. Going into her fifth year Olivas had a 31-1 dual meet record, her only loss came in her freshman year against All-American Carina Westover of Oregon State.
In 1995 she was inducted into Fresno State's Track Hall of Fame for all of her achievements. Olivas was a four-time All-American earning honors from 1985-1987 for outdoors and in 1988 for indoor competition. She was the only woman in Fresno State's program to do so until current assistant coach Tanya Dooley won her fourth in 1994.
Olivas graduated from Fresno State in the spring of 1988 with a degree in art. She started her own business in 1992 and with a lot of hard work has enjoyed success since 1996. "This job is my dream come true, this is what I have always wanted to do," Olivas said.
Apart from her full-time job Olivas is also a full-time mother. She married Hanford native John Olivas, her former Bulldog sweetheart, in 1990. The couple lived in Fresno but is now currently living in Hanford to be near family. Three years ago the couple began building a family and they now have a son named Micah.
The college sweethearts met in 1986, the result of a blind date set up by their
roommates. "Both of our roommates were dating and they both thought John and I should meet. The only problem was John was in a fraternity, he wasn't an athlete so I thought he wasn't my type...now we're going on ten years of marriage. I guess I was wrong," Olivas said jokingly.
Looking back Olivas sees her experiences at Fresno State as a time of excitement. "Track and field with coach Pagani was great...even though it was a long time ago I still have the memories," Olivas said. The education she acquired at Fresno State has helped her tremendously in her dream of owning her own business. "Fresno State definitely has put me where I am today. It gave me what I needed to achieve my dream."
Even though the memories of competition are slowly fading in Olivas' mind future and present Fresno State track and field high jumpers will know her achievements. Her records made 13 years ago are what they will be aiming for and will stand until broken by time.
