[2022-2023 MIAA Women's Basketball Athletes of the Week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its fourth MIAA Women’s Basketball Athlete of the Week, presented by Shift Group, for the 2022-23 season.
 
MIAA Women’s Basketball Athlete of the Week – Katie Wagner – Fort Hays State     
Katie Wagner averaged 20.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in a pair of conference blowouts over the first weekend of league action. The third-year sophomore collected her league-high fifth double-double in an 88-52 win over Northeastern State with 23 points and 10 rebounds against the RiverHawks. She then tallied 17 points and four rebounds in an 84-42 win against Rogers State. On the week, Wagner knocked down 63.6 percent from the floor (14-of-22) and 92.3 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-13).
 
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Karenna Gerber – Pittsburg State   
Kareena Gerber averaged 20.0 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots to help Pittsburg State post a 2-1 record in the opening week of MIAA play. The Halstead, Kan., native had 17 points in the Gorillas 78-54 win over Lincoln to open the league play. She then posted career highs of 17 rebounds and seven blocked shots, to go along with 20 points, in the Gorillas 80-74 overtime loss to Missouri Western. Gerber finished the week with 23 points and nine rebounds as the Gorillas beat Northwest Missouri 71-66. For the week, she shot 55.2 percent from the field (21-of-38).
 
Karly Wadsworth – Central Oklahoma  
Karly Wadsworth was one of two Bronchos to average more than 20 points per game this week as the Bronchos entered MIAA play. Wadsworth scored 24 points in a loss at Central Missouri before posting 19 points in a win at Lincoln. The sophomore guard sank eight three-pointers on the week while also averaging four steals per game. She shot 48 percent from the field, 40 percent from behind the three-point line, and finished a perfect 100 percent from the free-throw line.
 
Brooke Littrell – Central Missouri
Brooke Littrell helped No. 23-ranked Central Missouri to a pair of MIAA home wins over UCO and Newman. The redshirt sophomore averaged a team-high 19.5 points to go along with 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game. She shot a blistering 65 percent from the floor, making 15 out of 23 shots. In the 83-65 victory over the Bronchos, Littrell scored a season-high 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting (64 percent) before becoming the 30th member of the UCM women’s basketball 1,000-Point Club after netting 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting (67 percent) in the Jennies win over Newman. She now stands at 1,012 career points.
 
Connie Clarke – Missouri Western
Connie Clarke was tough to stop in the post this past weekend, posting her fourth and fifth double-doubles on the season against PSU and Missouri Southern. Against Pitt, Clarke tallied 21 points and 11 rebounds, while shooting 7-of-13 from the field. Against the No. 5-ranked Lions, the Griffon junior pulled down a game and season-high 16 rebounds while chipping in 13 points with another game and season-high six assists. This is the second time this season Clarke has brought down 16 boards, which is one shy of her career-high of 17.
 
ALSO NOMINATED
Kelsey Fields (Northwest Missouri), Tre’Zure Jobe (Emporia State), Shiloh McCool (Nebraska Kearney), Lacy Stokes (Missouri Southern)  

ABOUT SHIFT GROUP
Shift Group is a training and recruiting platform placing talented, retired collegiate and professional athletes in high caliber Software Sales positions. Athletes spend their lives engaging in team-based activities where they are rewarded for performance-based outcomes. Competitive drive, work ethic, and the desire to win are innate qualities of those performing at elite levels. Athletes at this level must have discipline, resilience, and grit. These are the intangible parts of any elite athlete’s identity. When combined with confidence, curiosity, and coachability, these traits separate great athletes – and great salespeople. Salesmanship can be taught. It requires the right attitude, habits, and skills – learned, practiced, and repeated in the right environment in order to be mastered. Once an athlete finishes Shift Group training, they get access to hiring managers at Startups, Fortune 500’s, and other organizations building out sales teams across the globe – with the Shift Group team coaching them through every step of the process.