MASON CITY – Katy Olive made school history on Tuesday.
The sophomore shortstop from Minneapolis became NIACC’s first-ever NJCAA first-team all-American honors in the sport of softball. Olive earned NJCAA Division II first-team honors as an infielder.
Also, NIACC sophomore Madisyn Kelley earned second-team NJCAA Division II all-American honors as a catcher.
Olive and Kelley are the third and fourth NIACC softball players to earn NJCAA all-American honors. Heather Higgins was an honorable mention honors as a catcher in 1992 and Laken Lienhard was a second-team all-American honors as a utility player in 2023.
Olive also earned first-team NFCA NJCAA Division II all-American honors as a shortstop and was also the NFCA NJCAA Division II player of the year.
Olive hit .472 and was ranked tied for third in NJCAA DII with 27 home runs to go along with 20 doubles, 81 RBI, 92 base hits and 95 runs scored.
On the base paths, Olive led NJCAA DII with 70 stolen bases in 75 attempts. Olive swiped four bases on three separate occasions and registered three steals three times. Olive’s hits, runs scored, RBI and steals are all single-season program records.
Kelley, who is from Nora Springs, hit .490 (4th on school’s single-season list) with 23 home runs (2nd on school’s single-season list), 10 doubles and 67 RBIs (3rd on school’s single-season list). Kelley collected 73 hits and scored 56 runs.
In her one season as a Trojan, Kelley ranks fifth on the school’s career home run list (23) and is tied for 16th on the school’s career RBI list (67).
Other ICCAC players to earn NJCAA Division II all-American honors were DMACC’s Courtney Donahue (first-team pitcher) and Kirkwood’s Peyton Johnson (third-team outfield).
NIACC’S ALL-AMERICANS
NJCAA Division I
1992 – Heather Higgins (catcher) honorable mention
NJCAA Division II
2023 – Laken Lienhard (utility) second team
2024 – Katy Olive (infield) first team; Madisyn Kelley (catcher) second team
(TOP PHOTO of Olive via NIACC)
