Even though the Montgomery County Scholar Bowl team came close to winning a district championship last year, it still had reason to celebrate.

The Wildcats brought home a second-place district championship plaque after losing to Columbia Independent by 90 points in the Class 3, District 5 finals, which was held at Columbia Independent School.

That definitely made Aiden Christian pretty happy. He was part of a team that had four seniors.

“That was a pretty awesome experience with some guys who I really enjoy,” Christian said.

This winter, Christian is back for his senior year and is looking to help his team turn in a strong season and, hopefully, clear the district tournament hurdle. The Wildcats have 16 members, half of them are juniors.

“Coming back, I knew I would be taking on kind of a big responsibility of leadership definitely because I’m the only returner from that team,” Christian said. “I feel like I couldn’t have asked for a better team around me. I feel like it’s going to be a good season. It’s going to be a long one. We play a lot of games.”

The Wildcats had their first competition of 2026 on Jan. 13 at the MCHS Library. They played three matches at the MCHS Library and won two of them, defeating Van-Far 210-100 and North Callaway 220-120. They lost to Wright City 320-170 in their first match.

Christian, senior Rachel Harris and juniors Jacob Roesner and Olivia Spurgeon made up the varsity team. All four of them joined the squad in the 2023-24 season.

Harris said she enjoys being in Scholar Bowl after three years.

“I’m liking it a lot,’” the senior said. “Every year is different. Every game is different. You have to face it with an open mind and answer questions as they go.”

MCHS had two other teams compete in the quadrangular. Other members who competed were senior Connor Bethel, juniors Addison Brower, Noah Lacy, Dakota Marion and Owen Merz, sophomores David Harter and Stryker Knipfel and freshmen Robert Merz and Ava Rhodes. 

“To be able to get nearly our whole roster here playing is pretty impressive,” Christian said.

Wellsville-Middletown was also in action on Jan. 13, competing against Bowling Green and defending Eastern Missouri Conference champion Elsberry at Elsberry High School. The Tigers lost 300-100 to Bowling Green and 320-110 to Elsberry. 

W-M had six players in the triangular, three of them played in varsity and the other three played in junior varsity.

“The varsity team seemed to know the answers but were just a touch slow on the buzzers,” W-M coach Jon Deering said. “Getting the players to ring in more aggressively is one of the challenges we'll have to overcome this season.”

Seniors Jonathan Pike and Isaac Todd, juniors Evan Bryson, Shane Joles and Jimmie Mitchell, sophomore Royce Wilkinson and freshmen Silas Jones and Leo Oligschlaeger make up the W-M Scholar Bowl team. Last year, Pike earned all-district honors after placing sixth in the Class 1, District 4 tournament at Bevier High School.

“Our full roster does have 8 players, and they're fairly evenly matched in their abilities,” Deering said. “As the season progresses, I'm looking closely at which of our players can distinguish themselves competitively before the EMO Conference tournament in March and the district tournament in April.”

MCHS and W-M will compete in the EMO tournament on March 9 at Elsberry. The two teams will square off in a triangular that includes Clopton on Feb. 3 at W-M.

In Scholar Bowl competition, there are two rounds in each match and 11 questions in each round. A team that answers a toss-up question correctly will receive three bonus questions. The team with the most points wins.

In the quadrangular, Roesner answered a total of 13 toss-up questions correctly, eight of them were in history. He said history and mythology are his favorite subjects.

“I really love how they’re all put together,” Roesner said. 

The Wildcats have a busy schedule that includes tournaments at Washington on Jan. 24, Palmyra on Jan. 31 and Moberly on March 21. The match against Van-Far, Wright City and North Callaway is the only home contest MCHS will have this year. 

“The next three months should hopefully treat us with a lot of fortune,” Christian said. “I know all of us are very excited, no matter what the outcome would be, to be able to go to all of these places, have the experience and work together for a common goal.”

Besides the second-place finish at districts, MCHS also finished 21-15 overall and 9-5 in EMO play and placed fourth in the Palmyra Tournament in the 2024-25 season.