GRANITE CITY - Katie Gartner was a senior goalie and an anchor for the girls' soccer team at Granite City High School in 2026.
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As the regular season ended last week, Granite finished 7-11-2, winning its season finale at Union, Mo., 2-0, as Gartner earned her sixth clean sheet of the season. She spent the lion's share of time in goal, allowing 32 goals for a goals-against average of 1.78. She will be counted on heavily as the postseason starts this week.
Gartner is a Stillwater Senior Living Female Athlete of the Month.
In a postgame interview that followed a 3-1 loss to Edwardsville on April 23, 2026, at Gene Baker Field, Gartner felt that despite giving up an early goal to the Tigers and eventually going down 3-0, the Warriors kept hanging in there and never gave up, which resulted in a justly deserved late goal by Charlee Schwaller to make the final 3-1.
"It was really, let's just say it was a tough game," Gartner said. "I think all the girls did their best with what we have, because we are a little short on the bench. But we did get a goal by Charlee Schwaller towards the end."
As far as goals and ambitions for the season, Gartner focused on team goals more than anything else throughout the campaign. Gartner's primary goal was to help the team be strong as the Warriors entered the playoffs.
It was a different feeling for the Warriors to be competing in Class 2A after being relegated from Class 3A, where Granite had been since the start of the multi-class system in the IHSA.
Highlights for Granite and Gartner were wins over Freeburg, Visitation Academy, Mater Dei, Alton, and Union.
Gartner was fantastic in goal in many of the wins, as Granite defeated Union 2-0 on May 13, Alton 5-0 on April 28, 2-0 over Visitation Academy on April 14, 4-1 over Freeburg on April 9 and 3-0 over Mater Dei on April 7.
Late in the season, Gartner was also excited about Senior Night. She was also ecstatic about her 2026 Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association (IHSSCA) All-Sectional Team honor as a goalkeeper that occurred at the conclusion of the season.
