The Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team enjoyed its best season in Todd Cripe’s four-year tenure as head coach this winter.

After losing to Community R-6 in the Class 1, District 10 finals on Feb. 25 at Madison High School, the Tigers finished 16-11, surpassing last year’s win total of 11. Two years ago, W-M won just four games.

The Tigers lost senior Carly Henderson due to a season-ending injury but had eight players who turned in strong efforts throughout the season. They were senior Natalie Boeckelman, juniors Bethany Slovensky, Jenelle Boeckelman and Meagan Cripe, sophomores Hallie Guzy, Indica Scott and Keigan Hall and freshman Helanea McKenzie. Next year, W-M will return everyone except Henderson and Natalie Boeckelman.

“Out of the eight girls, we will return seven,” said Cripe, who won 40 games since he took over the program in 2019. “All seven who will return played major minutes for us this year. We’re excited about that. We’re excited about what we accomplished this year as well. We competed against some very good teams. We competed against teams that were in district championships. We competed against teams that moved on from districts. We’re excited about what the future holds.”

After starting their season on Nov. 22 with a loss to Community on the road, the Tigers bounced back six days later to beat Mexico in the first round of the Montgomery County Invitational. W-M went on to finish fourth, its highest finish in the MCHS tournament since 1989.

The Tigers went on a five-game winning streak in early January that helped them climb over the .500 mark. The last time the program reached the .500 mark was in 2010, when it finished 13-13.

Winning the Keytesville tournament was the biggest highlight of the season for the Tigers. They cruised past top-seeded Higbee 56-37 in the championship game on Jan. 28 for their first Keytesville title.

W-M also won four games in Eastern Missouri Conference play, beating Mark Twain, Louisiana, Van-Far and Wright City.

The Tigers advanced to the Class 1, District 10 championship game by beating Higbee in the semifinals. In the title game, W-M had a five-point, first-quarter lead before Community rallied to win 56-50. It was the second straight year the Tigers finished second in districts.

“I told the girls that we played in three championship games (two district and one Keytesville) in the last two years,” Cripe said. “We like to move that up a little bit and play even more so we can get that experience playing in those high stressful situations. We’re excited about the future and we’re blessed about the season we had. We’re not happy about how it ended, but the journey was very satisfying.”

Hall was voted on the all-tournament team at the Montgomery County Invitational after scoring 33 points in three games. Guzy turned in a 29-point effort against Liberty Christian on Dec. 20, just four days after missing the contest against Montgomery County due to influenza. Slovensky scored 15 points to lead her team to a 47-32 homecoming win over Louisiana on Feb. 3. Natalie Boeckelman grabbed 13 rebounds to help the Tigers pull off a 56-37 win over Higbee in the Keytesville finals. Jenelle Boeckelman had 11 points against Community in the district finals.

Slovensky was the Tigers’ lone representative on the all-EMO girls basketball team, earning first-team honors. It’s the third year in a row the junior was named to the all-conference team.

The W-M Junior High girls team had nine players this season. They were eighth-graders Elly Cash, Madison Bickell, Aubrey Harmon and Kara Freie, seventh grader Paige Brashear and sixth-graders Ava Geisler, Alexis Brennan, Emma Null and Mia Reese. Cash scored 17 points in her team’s season finale against St. Brendan in December.

Devyn Burton, a 2017 W-M grad, was the team’s coach.