After cold weather, ice, snow and unsafe road conditions canceled the 36th Maries County Bank Owensville Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament last winter, first-year Gasconade County R-2 Athletic Director Zac Miller is hoping Mother Nature is more cooperative for the 37th installment of this year’s tournament.

Comprising the field for the 2026 Owensville Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament include the Southern Boone Eagles, Dixon Bulldogs, Union Wildcats, Pacific Indians, Owensville Dutchmen and the Gateway Legacy Christian Academy Lions.

Coached by Owensville High School (OHS) graduate Andy Jahnsen, Southern Boone’s Eagles earned the top seed in the tournament and are currently receiving votes in the latest Class 4 Boys Basketball Poll voted on by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association (MBCA).

Currently sitting at 7-1, Jahnsen’s Eagles have victory over Osage, Montgomery County, Harrisburg, Hermann and Jefferson City.

Their lone loss came to Class 2, second-ranked Eugene in the championship game of the Eugene Tournament held during the first full week of December.

Inserted into Pool A with Pacific and Owensville, Southern Boone will open pool play on Monday, Jan. 5 against Pacific at 5:30 p.m., before taking on the host Dutchmen on Tuesday, Jan. 6 with another 5:30 p.m., tip time.

Seniors leading the Eagles into Owensville include Pryce Bonnot, Brant Eddy, Chase Rackers, Mason Shearer, Aveion Sims and Jayce Troth.

Juniors rounding out the list of Jahnsen’s upperclassmen include Kaden Massie, Titus Pridemore and Brody Troth.

Leading the list of underclassmen as sophomores for the Eagles include Nolan Ash, Rowan Bonnot, Carson Foster, Angel Guevara, Kai Morris, Adrian Owens and Shannon Wiley.

Freshman making up the majority of Jahnsen’s roster include Ashton Bryant, Nolan Dalton, Maddox Kennedy, Aiden Lockard, Hudson Long, Robert Mathews, Trenton Morefield, Matthew Oyewole and Walt Tillman.

Ranked ninth in the Class 3 boys poll according to the panel of eight coaches from the MBCA, Dixon’s Bulldogs drew the second seed at Owensville and are in Pool B along with Union and Gateway Legacy.

Coming into the tournament with an unblemished 8-0 record, Dixon ran the table at the Frisco League Tournament with wins over Richland, Licking and Stoutland.

Their other victories in 2025 came against Steelville, Vienna, Linn, St. Elizabeth and Crocker.

Coached by Logan Ray, seniors looking to lead the Bulldogs to their first Owensville Tournament title include Rafen Baker, John Creamer, Taylar Dodson, Parker Doyle and Drew Young.

They’re also joined by the junior trio of Blake Coday, Matthew Ford and Perry Jacobs.

Sophomores leading off the underclassmen portion of Dixon’s roster include Karson Elliott, Taylon Holzer, Trip Holzer, Jake Johnson, Traemond Washer and Karter Wells.

Equaling their sophomore counterparts, six freshmen are also on Dixon’s roster in Connal Creason, Nick McBride, Landon Messinger-Hurst, Treaton Rosales, Noah Smith and Clayton Wilson.

Dixon will open pool play on Monday, Jan. 5 against Gateway Legacy at 7 p.m., before another 7 p.m., showdown on Tuesday, Jan. 6 against Union.

Former Dutchgirl head basketball coach John VanLeer will return to Owensville but as the head boys coach of the third-seed Union Wildcats.

Entering 2026 with a 6-2 record, VanLeer’s Wildcats have victories over Owensville, Pacific (twice), Washington, Warrenton and St. James.

Union’s losses have come against Granite City (Ill.) at the Norm Stewart Classic and to Bayless in first-round action at the St. Francis Borgia Turkey Tournament held over the week of Thanksgiving.

Seniors suiting up for VanLeer’s Wildcats include Cannon Brown, Tucker Mabe and Reece Rapert.

Six juniors make up the majority of Union’s roster in Aidan Curnutte, Nathan Golus, Reid Rogers, Cameron Servais, Blake Seiss and Caden Vandenbossche.

Four sophomores kick off the underclassmen portion of VanLeer’s roster in Kaden Crawford, Corbin Offield, Kolton Pelikan and Karter Wideman.

Freshman making up the majority of the Wildcat roster include Landon Decker, Colin Ennis, Romie Homeyer, Myles McPherson, Parker Pracht, Cruz Soto, Isaiah Stahlman, Renner Walbrecht and Bentley Williams.

Servais currently leads the Wildcats in scoring averaging 12.3 points per game while also dishing out a team-high 3.38 assists per contest. He is also Union’s chairman of the boards pulling down a team-leading 6.4 rebounds per game.

Mabe also averages double digits in scoring for Union at 10 points per game in addition to a team-leading 1.5 steals per contest.

Seeded fourth, Pacific’s Indians will enter the Owensville Tournament with a 2-5 record that includes losses to Rolla, Borgia (twice) and Union (twice).

Union’s notches in the win column have come against Washington and the St. Louis Blue Knights.

Playing in their final Owensville Tournament for the Indians will include seniors Gage Clark, Troy Murphy, Grant Orris, Seth Stack, Brayden Stevens and Parker Thomas.

Four juniors round out the list of Indian upperclassmen in Landon Callow, Rowan Herman, Logan Hoffman and Charles Kleine.

Making up the majority of the Pacific basketball roster are sophomores Beau Blackburn, Spencer Bukowsky, Colton Burt, Ryker Cozby, Gavin Haddox, Cohn Hoffmeyer, Dylan Lee, Cole Mohesky, Declan Ogle, Steven Reincke, Colton Thompson, Gavin Trower and Mason Vondera.

Freshman capping the Indian hoops roster include Reece Boettge, Mason Burt, Silas Chitwood, Evan Dubbs, Gunner Grodie, Ryder Kientzy, Dalton Lee, Isaac Miles, Jayden Patel, Lucas Rawie and Xander Vaughn.

Pacific will open pool play Monday night against Southern Boone at 5:30 p.m., before taking on the host Dutchmen on Wednesday, Jan. 7th also at 5:30 p.m.

Clark leads the Indians in scoring averaging 9.7 points per game while Mohesky is close behind at 8.6 points per contest.

Orris shows the way for the Indians on the glass pulling down a team-leading 5.9 rebounds per game.

Stack and Bukowsky both lead Pacific in the assist department averaging 2.57 dimes apiece.

One of Pacific’s leading ball handlers, Stack also leads the Indians in steals at 1.86 per game.

Seeded fifth, Cullen VanLeer’s Dutchmen will be looking for their first Owensville Tournament title since 2007 when Chris Collins and Andrew Jett swept Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Sixth Man honors respectively.

Dropping four of their first five games on the season, VanLeer’s Dutchmen will enter 2026 on a three-game winning streak with road wins at Fatima and Russellville in addition to a home victory over St. Clair in their FRC opener.

Defeating Linn at the Norm Stewart Classic, Owensville’s four losses have come against McCluer North, Union and Washington (twice).

Seniors looking to help coach VanLeer become just the second person in Owensville Tournament history to win a title as a coach and a player include Drew Chapman, Logan Valley, Chase Weirich, Adam Wilson and Henry Womack.

Juniors making up the majority of the Dutchmen roster include Koen Brooks, Chase Crosby, Keigan Glaser, Broden Kelley, Bryce Kramme, Wyatt Lewis, Kylen Menz and Brady Watson.

Sophomores leading the list of Dutchmen underclassmen include Wyatt Bone, Andrew Budnik, Charlie Katsov, Tyler Menz and Ryder Wehmeyer.

Freshman experiencing their first Owensville Tournament include Cohen Dare, Ayden Holaway, Tanner Mogensen, Eliott Phillips, Lucas Staton and Will Sublett.

In spite of missing Owensville’s first three games due to an ankle injury, Crosby leads the Dutchmen in scoring averaging 17 points per game.

Watson also averages double digits in the scoring column with 10.1 points per game to go along with a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game.

Glaser is Owensville’s main ball handler averaging 4.13 assists per game while Lewis and Watson both average a team-high 1.13 steals per game.

Owensville will open pool play on Tuesday night against Southern Boone at 5:30 p.m., before facing Pacific next Wednesday night also at 5:30 p.m.

Place games will be played on Thursday, Jan. 8 beginning at 4:30 p.m., with the consolation title game between the two third-place teams from each pool followed at 6 p.m., by the third-place contest between the second-place teams from each pool.

Tournament action will be capped at 7:30 p.m., next Thursday with the championship game between the first-place teams from each pool.

Editor’s Note: Information on Gateway Legacy Christian Academy was not available at press time.