Jillian Weekley enjoyed her senior year with the Montgomery County softball team this fall, helping her team win an outright Eastern Missouri Conference title, playing a huge role at the plate and staying injury free.

The only thing that was missing was a district title.

Weekley and two of her senior teammates – Reese Hill and Sam Turner – saw their high school softball careers come to an end on Oct. 19 as Elsberry topped MCHS 8-1 in the Class 2, District 2 championship game at Valley Park High School. The Wildcats came into the contest as the defending district champions.

Weekley, a catcher, was hoping to conclude her high school softball career with a trip to the Final Four, but her Wildcats came up two wins short.

“Being done with high school ball is really hard,” Weekley said.

MCHS finished its season at 19-9, its fourth consecutive winning season. Weekley, Hill and Turner were part of the winningest senior class in MCHS softball program history with 87 victories.

“I had so much fun,” Weekley said. “I love all of these girls. I’ve gotten so close with all of these freshmen. Just bringing them up and showing them that they can do hard things. It’s hard, but it’s possible if you put my mind into it.”

Hill hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth and sophomore Trinity Brown finished with two hits to lead MCHS. Defensively, junior shortstop Sullee Falloon made seven putouts and Brown, a centerfielder, had six putouts. But the efforts didn’t help the Wildcats beat Elsberry, which won its seventh district title in eight years.

“We all came in wanting to win,” Falloon said. “We kind of got down when they started scoring, but it was a heartbreaker to lose. They’re a good team. All credit to them.”

The Wildcats won the outright EMO title at 10-0 after finishing in a three-way tie for first with North Callaway and Elsberry last year. They started their season in late August by winning a championship at their own tournament.

Elsberry spoiled MCHS’ plans of winning its second straight district title by scoring three runs in the first, one in the third and two each in the fifth and sixth innings. The Indians avenged the 4-1 loss to MCHS on Oct. 6 at Kiwanis Fields.

Last year, the Wildcats beat Elsberry 1-0 in the district finals.

“There was a lot of pressure going into this game,” Weekley said. “Last year, there wasn’t an expectation for us to win because they had run-ruled us in conference play, so when we came back to beat them in districts, it shocked everyone. This year, there was an expectation that we were going to win. I think there was a lot of pressure on us and I think we all felt it more than we should have.”

Weekley missed the final 13 games of the 2025 season – including all of the postseason games – due to a season-ending injury.

This year, the senior hit .304 with three home runs and 28 RBIs. She played all 28 games.

“I was very glad to be injury free,” Weekley said. “I was pushing to get better. Recovering last year was hard, but I just wanted to come back and make an impact this year.”

Her best highlight of the season was hitting a home run in the top of the ninth inning against Fatima. She helped the Wildcats knock off the Comets 5-4.

“That was super cool,” Weekley said. “It showed me that when it comes down to the wire, I can do things under pressure. I just have to put my mind into it and I can do it.”

Weekley, who plans to continue her softball career at college next year, said she believes the Wildcats will shine again in 2027.

“I think the future is bright,” she said. “(Audra) Heimer is such a strong coach and (assistant) Coach Mo (Don Moultrie) is such a strong coach. If these young girls remember what they need to do and the impact that we have, I think they can do it.”

The Wildcats were the top seed in the district tournament. They had an easy 17-1 win over Louisiana in the semifinals on Oct. 17 to advance to the district finals.Four days earlier, MCHS defeated Louisiana 18-0 in its regular season finale on the road to clinch the outright EMO championship,

Turner finished with three hits and six RBIs to lead the Wildcats in the district semifinals.