APPLETON, Wis. -- Lawrence University's Catherine Marinac and Russell Geisthardt have swept the Ruth Peterson and Roy W. LeClere awards, which are presented by the Midwest Conference.
The awards are given to a female and male multi-sport student-athlete from the
Midwest Conference with the highest grade point average in their junior year.
Marinac, a native of St. Paul, Minn., has a 3.9 grade point average and is a biology and chemistry major. She has participated in three sports, softball, soccer, and cross country, during her time at Lawrence.
A Rhodes Scholar candidate, Marinac has been named to Mortar Board, the college's
senior honor society, and Lamba Sigma, the college's sophomore honor society.
She has been on the Dean's List every year since 2005 and was named the school's
Freshman Chemistry Student of the Year. A three-time National Fastpitch Coaches
Association Academic All-American, Marinac completed a National Institute of
Health Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic last summer. Marinac
has been named to the academic all-conference team five times, which is every
season she has been eligible.
Marinac is a two-time All-Midwest Conference selection in softball and was the North Division Pitcher of the Year in 2006. She lettered twice in soccer before running cross country this fall.
Marinac is the second Lawrence athlete to win the Peterson Award, joining Jess Moser in 2003. The award is named for Ruth Peterson, the former commissioner of the Midwest Athletic Conference for Women. She also served as co-commissioner of the Midwest Conference. A Beloit College alumna and employee, Peterson died in October 2006.
A native of Bloomer, Wis., Geisthardt has a 3.8 grade point average in physics and is the first Lawrence student-athlete to win the LeClere Award.
Geisthardt has been on the Lawrence Dean's List since 2004, is a Kimberly-Clark
Scholar, and winner of the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship. He is a two-time winner
of the school's Bruce C. Brackenridge Prize in Physics. Geisthardt has completed
internships with the University of Idaho physics department and at the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational in Livingston, La. Geisthardt has been named to
the academic all-conference team seven times, which is every season he has been
eligible.
A cross country and track athlete, Geisthardt finished third among Lawrence runners at the 2007 conference cross country championships.
The LeClere Award is named for Roy W. LeClere, a collegiate sports enthusiast whose passion for the conference led friends and co-workers to sponsor the award as a memorial in his honor.
Lawrence is the first school to sweep the awards since St. Norbert College's Kathy Shimon and Jeff Zucchi did it in 1988.