Sports

The mission of an athletic booster club is to provide support for a school’s athletic teams in such aspects as financial, equipment and other resource needs. This year, the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club supporting the Waukon High School and Middle School athletic teams certainly put an extra “boost” in booster club.

That boost came in the form of an additional nearly $35,000 in financial support that helped with the purchase of a variety of equipment, some more sport specific and some that can benefit all sports. These purchases were made over and above what the Booster Club and the athletic teams would normally spend in a year to provide those teams with equipment, training and other preparation and competition opportunities.

The 29th Annual Shooky Fink Wood Bat Baseball Tournament was held Thursday, July 12 and Friday, July 13 in New Albin. Thursday was the 11U Division, with New Albin, Lansing and Hokah and Spring Grove teams from Minnesota competing in a round-robin style tournament. New Albin finished in first place, with Hokah finishing as runner-up. In Friday’s 13U division, Pool A consisted of Waukon, Spring Grove, MN and Lansing, while Pool B consisted of New Albin and Lanesboro and Hokah from Minnesota. New Albin and Waukon both won their respective pools to advance to the championship game, which was rescheduled to Monday, July 16 due to a rainout Friday. New Albin defeated Waukon, 5-4, in that championship game to claim first place, while Waukon was runner up.

The Waukon High School wrestling team participated in the 2018 Luther College Team Wrestling Camp in Decorah. Campers at the 2018 camps participated in team building activities, and “Train Like a Norseman”, technique and live wrestling sessions. The camp closed with an individual tournament.

Jakob Regan and Tyler Block, members of the Waukon wrestling team, earned Wrestler of the Day honors from Luther camp coach Hunter Weaver, who provided guidance to wrestlers with quality feedback throughout the camp. The Waukon wrestling team is coached by Mason Berns and Caleb Ferring.
 

D.J. Johnson (right) of Richmond, VA scored a hole-in-one using a 7-iron on hole nine of the Waukon Golf and Country Club Saturday, July 7. He is pictured above with Carley Sweeney of Waukon, who was his witness to the achievement on the par-three, 127-yard hole. Johnson’s wife, Sherry, is a native of Caledonia, MN and a cousin to Carley Sweeney’s mother, Penny Sweeney of Waukon, and the Johnsons visit the area annually, with the pair pictured above golfing together the past several years during those vacation visits, either at the Waukon Golf & Country Club or at the Ma-Cal-Grove Golf Course in Caledonia, MN. Submitted photo.
 

Saturday, June 30, Harpers Ferry Boosters, Inc. hosted its fifth annual Firecracker 5K Run/Walk. The 5K, which follows a route through Harpers Ferry, drew runners, walkers and onlookers from all across the state of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and from as far away as California.

There was an overall male and female winner of the event and first-, second- and third-place finishes for female and male participants were broken down by age category. The overall male winner was Lenny Bulman from Waukon with a time of 20:45. Leeta Votsmier of  Waukon was the overall female winner with a time of 22:29. The winners of the other categories are shown below in order of First Place-Gold, Second Place-Silver and Third Place-Bronze.

After the awards ceremony, a Superhero Children’s Race took place on the grounds of St. Ann’s-St. Joseph’s Church. Approximately 50 boys and girls participated in the race and each received a special medal for their efforts and hard work.

The Kee baseball team rode a bit of a postseason rollercoaster this past week, allowing its two Class 1A District 7 opponents faced to jump to an early lead before climbing back into contention in each postseason tournament game. The first of those comebacks continued to climb all the way to a 7-3 Hawk victory over Starmont at home in the quarterfinal round of District 7 play Tuesday, July 10, but the Kee baseballers’ climb back in their Thursday, July 12 district semifinals match-up played at the South Winneshiek High School baseball field in Calmar against Wapsie Valley could only pull the Hawks even with those Warriors before a final single-run descent in the late innings brought Kee’s 2018 season to a close with a 5-4 defeat.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2018 season brought to a close Tuesday, July 10 in the semifinal round of its Class 2A District 5 Tournament played at New Hampton. The Indians were matched up with a Denver team that featured the pitching talents of senior Zach Miller, who came into the game with a 5-1 season record and 0.72 earned run average (ERA) with a 73:7 strike-out-to-walk ratio over 48-2/3 innings.

For the first time this season, the Kee baseball team suffered a winless week on the diamond, the Hawks playing three final non-conference opponents on consecutive days late in the week and falling to all three to wrap up their regular season. A three-team event at Riceville Thursday, July 5 saw the Hawks fall to both West Fork, 8-4, and to the host school, 7-6, before Kee finished out its regular season slate with a 7-3 home loss to Class 2A eighth-rated New Hampton Friday, July 6.

The Waukon softball team had its 2018 season brought to a close by one of the top teams in the entire state of Iowa, a Class 3A Waterloo Columbus team that sports the state’s best season record at 36-2 and has now gone on to a return trip to the Class 3A State Tournament. However, that 9-0 season-ending loss for the Indians in the opening round of Class 3A Region 5 play at the home of the highly-regarded Sailors didn’t happen without a fight to the finish by the softball Tribe.

The season-ending loss brings the softball Tribe’s 2018 campaign to a close with an 11-19 overall record, including a 6-12 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the Indians fifth in the final seven-team NEIC standings. Columbus went on to defeat North Fayette Valley, 13-1 in five innings, Friday, July 6 in the regional semifinals and Class 3A 14th-rated Crestwood in the Monday, July 9 regional championship, 5-1, to earn a return trip to the Class 3A State Tournament.

The Waukon baseball team ended its regular season and began its postseason on opposite ends of the win-loss spectrum this past week, wrapping up a regular season record of 10-21 that included a 2-16 mark in the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) that placed the Indians in a sixth-place tie with a Crestwood team they had beaten two of three times this season for their only NEIC victories. The end to the regular season saw the Indians falls at home to Oelwein, 10-2, Monday, July 2 in a game that was the postponed second half of a June 20 doubleheader.