Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: San Mateo’s Hannah Villareale

After her 2024-25 debut varsity wrestling season — when she posted a 28-11 record, took second place in the Peninsula Athletic League championships, and reached the Central Coast Section Masters tournament — Villareale really went to work, competing in approximately 40 matches over the spring and summer during her freestyle season with the South San Francisco Gator Wrestling Club.

“Nothing else I’d rather do, honestly,” Villareale said. “That was like my ideal summer.”

Villareale has been selected as the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week after claiming her first tournament championship of the season, posting a 4-0 record in the 125-pound division Saturday, at the Brittany David Invitational at Liberty High School in Brentwood.

Through the opening month of her junior season, Villareale now owns an 11-4 record, while going up against some serious competition in her previous two tournaments. At the prestigious Webber Lawson Tournament, Dec. 12, she advanced to the semifinals before falling to Los Banos senior Angelina Borelli, a Menlo College commit ranked No. 4 in the state at 115s. The following week at the Women’s West Coast Tournament of Champions, Villareale reached the quarterfinals, where she was defeated by Central-Fresno senior Me’Kala James, ranked No. 4 in the state at 125s and a former USA Wrestling 16U national champion.

Villareale’s short wrestling resume already has San Mateo head coach Isabelle Cervantes thinking big. San Mateo has produced just one previous CCS girls’ wrestling placer in Nancy Gama, who took sixth in 2017. Cervantes said not only is Villareale on the fast track to become the second, but has the potential to become the first Bearcats wrestler, boy or girl, to reach the year-end CIF state tournament.

“Especially seeing how’s she’s actually wrestling with a lot of these girls, and a lot of these state placers, she’s toe-to-toe with a lot of them,” Cervantes said.

Villareale discovered her love of wrestling on, of all places, the basketball court.

As a freshman, Villareale spent the winter sports season as a team captain for the San Mateo junior-varsity basketball team, this despite her 5-2 stature.

“At the end of day, she’s only 5-2, and that can get you so far in basketball,” Cervantes said. “It can get you really far in wrestling.”

Villareale quickly found her niche on the mat after giving wrestling a tumble at El Camino High School, home of the SSF Gator Wrestling Club. It was a perfect fit, as Cervantes coaches there alongside her fiance, San Mateo coach Ryan Cummings, and her cousin, Temo Cervantes.

“I kind of got beat up a little bit,” Villareale said. “Well, a lot actually ... but it made me want to get better.”

A chance basketball game at the beginning of her sophomore year helped Villareale make up her mind to change sports. The preseason scrimmage saw San Mateo travel to none other than El Camino. It was the last organized basketball game Villareale ever played.

“All I could think about was: ‘I wish I was in the mat room,’” Villareale said.

After a solid sophomore campaign for the Bearcats, Villareale put her nose to the grindstone in the offseason. Her hard work led her to the Junior Wrestling Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, the biggest stage in junior club wrestling. Competing on the national club scene for the first time, Villareale posted a 2-2 record despite spraining her shoulder several days before the tournament.

“It’s definitely rare for someone to just be off-the-rip good,” Cervantes said. “She’s a natural athlete though. ... It’s cool to see just how much she’s excelled in such a short amount of time.”

Now a junior, she showed just how dominant she can be in Brentwood. Through her four wins Saturday, Villareale didn’t get taken down once, using first-round falls to advance through into the semifinals, where she scored a third-round tech fall over host Liberty.

In the finals against College Park’s Mirabella Gum, Villareale wrestled to a comfortable lead into the third round before executing the surprise maneuver of the day, a single leg into a fireman’s carry. It’s her signature move, one San Mateo has seen from her before. This one was different, though, as it wasn’t an attack but a reveral.

“I put it to the other side of my head and her leg was right there ... so I knee slid into it and hit the reversal,” Villareale said. “I’ve hit fireman carries before but in that context it was a little unorthodox. I mean, people don’t really hit those as reversals.”

Villareale is now looking to ride the season into the playoffs to join a select list of San Mateo wrestlers to reach the CCS podium, including three boys’ wrestlers: Tristan Helin, sixth place in 2017; Sam Kolokihakaufisi PAL champ, fifth in 2018; and Soane Kolokihakaufisi, sixth in 2020.

And, of course, no Bearcats wrestler has ever reached the state tournament.

“We’re really hoping that changes this year,” Cervantes said.