LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) — Students from the Northwest Conference went head to head Thursday during the fourth annual Scholastic Bowl Tournament.
Ohio State Lima hosted the competition, which brought together teams from eight conference schools to compete in seven rounds of questions. The tournament highlights academic competition among schools beyond athletics, challenging students on a wide range of subjects.
“There's a lot of questions, from sports to historical questions to literature to current events pop cultural. So, students really have to be up on knowledge of all kinds of different areas. So, it's really fun to watch some of the students are excited about have a passionate about history or literature or sports. We also have some computation math questions to really challenge the students. And they they enjoy that. And it's sort of funny, because sometimes we'll have multiple math questions in a row, and you'll hear the students like, all right, or some students like, Oh no, more math questions. But it really challenges them, and it's great to have them out here on campus competing," said Bryan Albright, assistant dean of student success at Ohio State Lima.
The tournament highlights academic competition among schools beyond athletics, challenging students on a wide range of subjects.
The tournament featured both varsity and junior varsity divisions. Columbus Grove won the varsity division, while Fort Loramie claimed the junior varsity title.
December 19, 2025, Press Release from The Ohio State University at Lima:
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 varsity competition. Fort Loramie won the junior varsity division in their first appearance at the tournament and Bluffton was runner-up.
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.
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.
The Columbus Grove coach is John Vennekotter. Crestview is Felicia Kowalski, Fort Loramie is Julie Goldschmidt and Bluffton is Brigette Hoff.
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.
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.
