Before the fall athletic season began in August, the Montgomery County Wildcats had won 85 Eastern Missouri Conference championships in athletic competition.

On Oct. 13, the softball team brought home championship No. 86.

The Wildcats celebrated their first EMO championship in program history after beating the Louisiana Bulldogs 3-2 in their league finale at Kiwanis Fields. MCHS finished in a share of the EMO title with North Callaway and Elsberry with a 9-1 record.

After the softball team clinched its league championship, MCHS now has won EMO championships in every sport. The school also won titles in football, volleyball, boys and girls cross country, girls and boys basketball, golf, boys and girls track and baseball. The football team has the most titles with 21 and the volleyball team is second with 12.

Softball players are thrilled that their banner will have a 2025 EMO championship added with their 2018 district championship crown.

“Just to have the conference championship for the first time is pretty awesome,” MCHS junior Anna Klekamp said.

Junior Sam Turner said she was thrilled to be part of another EMO championship team. Five months ago, Turner, Klekamp and junior teammate Jillian Weekley helped the MCHS girls track team win its ninth EMO title in program history. 

“It’s great,” Turner said. “Getting to come out here with these girls and getting to win something as big as this is phenomenal. It’s so much fun.”

Senior Gracie Cobb delivered the game-winning hit with one out in the bottom of the seventh, driving sophomore Sullee Falloon home from second with a single. It’s the second time in a week Cobb recorded a walk-off hit. She drove home Falloon for the winning run on a single to lift the Wildcats to come-from-behind, 8-7 win over Community R-6 at Kiwanis Fields on Oct. 6.

“It was a special moment, for sure,” Klekamp said.

MCHS lost to Fatima 6-1 later in the day, finishing its regular season at 25-5. The Wildcats were scheduled to play North Callaway in a Class 2, District 2 semifinal game on Oct. 20 at Elsberry. They’re the No. 2 seed in the district tournament.

Both Klekamp and Turner played valuable roles in the Wildcats’ outstanding season. Klekamp is hitting .422 with a home run and 22 RBIs and Turner is batting .404 with two home runs and a team-high 45 RBIs. Both players were named to the all-EMO team.

Klekamp had an eight-game hitting streak and hit her only home run against Silex.

“There’s always improvement, but it’s going good this year,” Klekamp said.

Turner is enjoying an injury-free season after missing 13 games last year due to an elbow injury.

“I’ve been doing pretty good,” Turner said. “Bouncing back from that injury last year was a little difficult, but I was able to come out and do what I needed to do.”

The Wildcats won their first eight conference games before losing to Elsberry on Oct. 7. They needed a win over Louisiana to finish in a share of the EMO title since Elsberry and North Callaway had already wrapped up their conference seasons. Elsberry lost its only EMO game to North Callaway on Sept. 18 and MCHS handed North Callaway its only conference loss on Sept. 25. 

Against North Callaway, the Wildcats came back from a 4-0 deficit to pull off the win.

“That was a great win,” said Turner, who had two hits and two RBIs against the Thunderbirds. “We came back as a team and we just never let go. We’re a team that is not going to let go of the gas ever. We’re going to try, try and try. We’re going to fight back and do what we can to get a win. That’s exactly what we did with North Callaway.”

The Wildcats had a chance to clinch a share of the EMO title on Oct. 7, when they took on Elsberry. But the Indians beat MCHS 10-0. The Wildcats had two hits and eight errors.

“We had some errors,” Klekamp said. “We didn’t hit the best. It was an off-game for us.”

Cobb, Klekamp and seniors Skylar Bethmann and Hailey Meyer each finished with two hits against Louisiana. It was the second time this season the Wildcats beat Louisiana. They also beat the Bulldogs 11-1 in the championship game of the MCHS Fall Classic on Aug. 30.

“They’re a great team,” Turner said. “They’re coming out to win and we’re coming to win. It was just a great battle.”

Turner said she was happy her team celebrated an EMO title in front of its home fans.

“It was definitely one of our goals at the beginning of the season,” she said. “We knew that we would come out and do it. It was good to see that we were able to accomplish that goal.”