Emily Gartner

If there’s one thing you can be certain about year in and year out is that the Big 7 League will be one of the toughest and most competitive leagues throughout the entire state of Kansas.

Because of that several area athletes have had the opportunity to play at the Division I level in college, but none have had the quick success that former Hiawatha Lady Redhawk Emily Gartner has had in her time at Missouri State University.

Gartner is in her redshirt junior season on the Lady Bears’ women’s basketball team and has earned her way into a starting spot where she is currently averaging 9.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Her rebounds per game average places her second on the team while she is fourth in scoring.

She is coming off her season-high for minutes played in a 79-72 win over Missouri as she posted 13 points and 11 rebounded in 28 minutes while her highest scoring output came in a win over Santa Clara early in the season where she posted 20 points and eight boards.

In her redshirt freshman season, she was named the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the week once while last season Gartner shot over 50 percent from the field in 16 games after playing in 34 of a possible 35 games.

During her time at Hiawatha she set not only became the school’s all-time leading scorer but the leading rebounder as well.

Gartner went captured both of those records in her junior season where she also went over the 1,000-points mark averaging 21.4 points, 13.3 boards and 4.0 blocks earning her all-state recognition.

In her senior campaign she was even better earning a second-team all-state selection averaging 21.7 points on 70 percent shooting, 13 rebounds and 7.0 blocks per game.

She also captured a state discus title as a junior and finished fourth in the discus as a senior, and fourth in the shot put her junior year.

Gartner will look to continue her success at the collegiate level as her Lady Bears are currently ranked 20th in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll and will have a tough road matchup Friday at No. 17 Gonzaga with tip off scheduled for 8 p.m. in Spokane, WA.