A year ago, the Montgomery County High School Scholar Bowl team was seniorless.
This winter, the Wildcats have four seniors who hope to help their team turn in another successful season. Beckham …
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A year ago, the Montgomery County High School Scholar Bowl team was seniorless.
This winter, the Wildcats have four seniors who hope to help their team turn in another successful season. Beckham Cothren, Jordan Hicks, Bryson Nichols and Landon Pottebaum make up the senior class. They lead a team that has 17 members after having 14 last year.
“I remember me and Bryson’s freshman year, there were six or seven of us,” Pottebaum said. “We had enough to make only one varsity team. I kind of like the smaller group, but I’m glad more people are getting into it.”
The other members on the team are juniors Aiden Christian, Rachel Harris and Emily Clark, sophomores Olivia Spurgeon, Dakota Marion, Grace Thier, Owen Merz, Jacob Roesner, Carl Smith and Addison Brower and freshmen Stryker Knipfel, Levi Waters and David Harter. Christian, Harris, Clark, Spurgeon, Marion and Thier return from last year.
“One of the best things about this group is we have really good chemistry,” Hicks said.
The Wildcats enjoyed a banner season last winter that included 18 victories and top four finishes in the Eastern Missouri Conference tournaments.
Pottebaum and Cothren earned all-league honors for the second year in a row. So far, MCHS competed in a tournament and has a 1-2 mark in EMO matches.
The Wildcats were orginally scheduled to play a conference quad meet on Jan. 21 at Van-Far, but it was postponed due to inclement weather. In February, they will play in the Palmyra Tournament and quad meets at Wellsville-Middletown and Silex. MCHS will participate at the EMO tournament on March 10 and the Class 3, District 5 tournament on April 13.
The Wildcats played all of their EMO matches on Jan. 15 at MCHS. They lost 230-220 to North Callaway and 310-210 to Wright City and cruised past Van-Far 330-50. Christian and all four seniors competed for the varsity in those matches.
Against North Callaway, MCHS trailed by 60 points with four questions remaining before coming back to tie at 220. North Callaway won the match after answering the second-to-last question correctly.
In the match against Wright City, the Wildcats led 170-120 after 12 questions. But Wright City came back to outscore MCHS 190-40 in the next 10 questions. Wright City -- which is also nicknamed the Wildcats -- got seven toss-up questions correct during that stretch.
The Wildcats wrapped up the quad match with the win over Van-Far.
The match was originally scheduled for Jan. 8, but was postponed due to inclement weather. Before the match, the Wildcats hadn’t practiced in over a month.
MCHS began its season on Dec. 7 with a nine-game tournament at Washington High School. The group was split into two teams. The first team, which included all four seniors, finished with a 6-3 record. The second team had a couple of victories.
“That was our first tournament of the season,” Cothren said. “It’s a long day. It really adds up on you.”
All of the seniors bring plenty of experience with the MCHS Scholar Bowl team. Pottebaum and Nichols have competed with the team since they were freshmen, while Cothren and Hicks joined the squad in their sophomore year.
“There are definitely a lot of mixed emotions,” Nichols said. “I’m going to miss playing with the underclassmen like Aiden. He’s a good personality to be around. He’s always there to support the team.”
Christian said he’s thrilled to return for his second season with the team.
“As a freshman, I kind of looked past it considering everything else I had going on,” the junior said. “But when I joined it as a sophomore, I knew it would be something I would stick with. It’s not exactly a popular activity, but it’s a fun one and it’s with people I enjoy being around with.”
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