Daphne Johnston named to All Tournament Team

Columbus Grove took home top honors at the 2025 Northwest Conference Scholastic Bowl Tournament held Friday, December 19, at The Ohio State University at Lima. Crestview was runner-up in the varsity competition. Fort Loramie won the junior varsity division in its first appearance at the tournament, and Bluffton was runner-up.

VARSITY COMPETITION
The winning varsity team from Columbus Grove included Laney Auchmuty, Avery Birnesser, Anastacia Gratz, Will Horstman, Nick Johnson, Alexis Kohli, Kellan McCluer, Lily Montgomery, Connor O’Sullivan, Autumn Stechschulte, Lylah Wilson and Simon Zimmerly. The team finished with a 7-0 record to win the tournament by one point in head-to-head competition with the runner-up team. The runner-up varsity team from Crestview finished with a 6-1 record and included Noah Mosier, Brentyn Rodriguez, Harold Smacenko and Caleb Thomas.

JV COMPETITION
The winning JV team from Fort Loramie included Evan Meyer, Liza Poeppelman, Will Rethman, Addison Turner and Sophia Werner. The team finished with a 4-0 record. The runner-up JV team from Bluffton included Calliope Buckell, Caleb Kantner, Aubrey Maag and Alexis Mummert. Their record was 3-1.

COACHES
Columbus Grove: John Vennekotter; Crestview: Felicia Kowalski; Fort Loramie: Julie Goldschmidt;  Bluffton: Brigette Hoff.

ALL TOURNAMENT HONORS
The Northwest Conference Scholastic Bowl All Tournament Team was chosen by the coaches and made up of one member from each school. The 2025 All Tournament Team members are Cole Kruger from Allen East, Daphne Johnston from Bluffton, Simon Zimmerly from Columbus Grove, Noah Mosier from Crestview, Alex Groch from Delphos Jefferson, Sam Goubeaux from Fort Loramie, Dante Turney from Lima Central Catholic and Nathaniel Bontrager from Spencerville. Zimmerly repeated as a member of the All Tourney Team for the third time.

TEAMS
High school teams went head-to-head in the round-robin scholastic bowl tournament. Varsity and junior varsity teams from Allen East (Kristin Dixon), Bluffton (Brigette Hoff), Columbus Grove (John Vennekotter), Crestview (Felicia Kowalski), Delphos Jefferson (Rebekah Dubey and Melanie Stanton), Fort Loramie (Julie Goldschmidt), Lima Central Catholic (Bonnie Brunelle) and Spencerville (Joshua Vasquez) competed. Coaches’ names are in parentheses.

The competition is hosted and sponsored by The Ohio State University at Lima.