Athlete of the Week: Autumn Gillenwater, Eaton

Gillenwater is a junior basketball player at Eaton. In a Division IV tournament win against Meadowdale on Feb. 16, she scored a game-high 17 points, hitting three shots from beyond the arc to match her season best, and dished out seven assists and grabbed five rebounds.

For her efforts, Gillenwater was named the Dayton Daily News Athlete of the Week for Feb. 16 through Feb. 22, earning the honor through reader voting at DaytonDailyNews.com.

“It was kind of a shock to see that, like, my work is being shown,” she said. “I don’t score the ball as much as some people in our district for tournament, but I kind of came out and I showed that I could score but I could also get my teammates involved.”

The win was the first for the program since making it to the regional semifinals in 2022.

“We were actually super excited because we haven’t had the best years previously,” Gillenwater said, noting she was happy to help get the seniors on the team their first tournament win. “I think it was like a big deal that we were able to advance to the next round and keep practicing for another couple days.”

Eaton scored 67 points in the Meadowdale game. It was the highest total of the season for the Eagles and one the team joked about it may not have been allowed to stop at from the popularity of the ‘6-7′ meme.

“I was the most excited for it because it’s just funny because at the beginning of the year coach [Maggie] Neanen was like, ‘I’m not gonna let you guys score 67 points. We’ll just go around it,” Gillenwater said. “’You’re not gonna get it.’ It was just kind of funny since it has to do with the time since scoring 67 points was exciting.”

Gillenwater played a big part of getting Eaton the win, which secured the program’s first finish above .500 in a season in four years.

While she likes being a shooter, she credits the improvement in her abilities to valuing possession of the ball more so than in previous seasons. Her turnovers per game average went from 5.0 last year to below 3.0 this season and she said she feels that example has been imprinted onto her teammates as well.

“I feel like there’s always a new challenge and I feel like that’s what I thrive with,” she said. “I always like reading the defense and that’s just my favorite thing is finding out different ways to attack.”

Eaton’s season is now over, but there’s no doubting Gillenwater will try to take those principles to find a way to attack her senior season.

Send us your nominations

Where to find our coverage

Want to find the latest news on your smartphone? Download the new and improved Dayton Daily News app from your app store.