The Mexico High School Academic team played the comeback game of their lives Saturday, walking away from the Missouri State High School Activities Association sanctioned 2025 Scholar Bowl State Tournament with the first state championship win in MHS history.

After defeating Center High School in the first round, the Bulldogs suffered a devastating loss to their rival, New Heights Christian. Unfortunately, that put MHS at a disadvantage heading into the third round.

“We definitely didn’t play our best in the first two rounds but they were able to bounce back and really faced quite an adverse situation,” said Dale Schenewerk, head Academic team coach.

Due to the deficit from the second round, Mexico had to win its round three matchup against Webster Groves, who were undefeated that day, by more than 250 points.

“We ended up winning by 300,” said Schenewerk. “To face not only having to win but having to win in a blowout fashion against the team other teams have lost to was definitely nerve-racking, but the kids were able to pull it together at the right time and give us a little momentum.”

In that match, Mexico saw a strong start from seniors Andrew Peuster and Camden Williams who took the first seven of 22 tossup questions – and they never looked back, winning the Championship game 590 to 210.

“I think that it’s a proper sendoff to this outstanding senior class,” said Schenewerk.

Schenewerk said that while this is the strongest class he has ever seen, there are a lot of up-and-coming students.

“The one junior who was on our starting squad, Hunter Feger, will return,” he said. “We’ve got AJ Leon, who is a junior coming back and Elliott DeVargas who actually made an appearance in the state tournament as a freshman, so we’ve got kids with some experience.”

His hope for the team next year is to bring home another MSHSAA Championship win.