A pair of Jackson County athletes have received collegiate honors over recent weeks for their impact on and off the field.
Former Trinity Lutheran softball player Genesis Munoz is having a solid freshman season at Franklin College right now.
Earlier this week, Munoz was named as one of seven Franklin players to make one of the three all-conference teams for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Munoz earned first team All-HCAC honors along with Makayla Plymale, Sydney Pitts and Molly Wallace. Juniors Sydney Bostic and Sydney Rodeghier earned second team All-HCAC accolades, and sophomore Annie Kluemper rounded out the list of recipients, earning a place on the league’s honorable mention team.
Munoz is batting .380 with team-leading home run (four) and RBI (27) totals while splitting time between first base, catcher and designated player.
Munoz and the Grizzlies are currently 21-18 this season and will play in an HCAC tournament game today against Transylvania at 3 p.m. in Lexington.
Cortney VanLiew, who attended Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour up until eighth grade and her parents live in Seymour, received a high honor, as well. The graduating senior won one of the most prestigious awards a student-athlete can win at their respective school.
VanLiew is the lone winner of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Kavanagh Eagle Scholar-Athlete Award and also won the Ms. FGCU award for most school spirit.
VanLiew, a Columbus East graduate, played five years of volleyball and just wrapped up her third year of beach volleyball at FGCU this week. In volleyball, she is the school’s all-time leader in kills, was a two-time ASUN Conference Player of the Year and was named honorable mention All-American in 2018 after leading the Eagles to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
A four-time All-ASUN honoree, VanLiew also was a three-time ASUN All-Academic selection and a two-time CoSIDA All-Academic honoree. She was a two-term president of FGCU’s Eagles Council, currently serves as the ASUN Student Athletic Advisory Committee president and is a member of FGCU’s Hall of Fame for students. She earned a degree in accounting with a minor in Spanish last spring and is finishing her master’s in business administration.