Sports

The 2022 Waukon football season rode a bit of a rollercoaster during this most recent fall campaign that ended up at a 6-4 season record, and just like any such ride that ultimately comes to an end too soon, there were plenty of thrills provided along the way. That end came short of a sixth consecutive trip to every team’s ultimate destination of playing in the UNI-Dome at season’s end, but before that conclusion the grid Tribe played its way to a fifth consecutive undefeated Class 2A District Championship and extended a qualifying streak for the Class 2A State Play-Offs to a sixth consecutive season as well.

The 2022-2023 Kee boys basketball season will see a number of new faces taking to the court, as the bucket Hawks will look to replace a large group of seven graduated seniors who accounted for a vast majority of the production in last winter’s 12-12 season effort. Three players do return from that squad with varsity letterwinning experience, all of those coming from this season’s largest class of six sophomores that make up a majority of this season’s nine varsity team members.

Those returning letterwinners include the sophomore trio of Jordan Cota, Dalton Mudderman and Karsen Strong. Those three equal the same number of total upperclassmen for this winter’s campaign, as Jacob Rolfs is this season’s lone senior and there are only two juniors, Kaleb Drape and Andrew Kolsrud. Another three sophomores, Brayden Darling, Parker Leppert and Jarod Reams, round out this season’s varsity squad.

Even though the sport of girls wrestling has been growing by historic measures in recent years, the 2022-2023 Iowa high school wrestling campaign will be even more historic as the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has officially sanctioned the sport of girls wrestling this season. Much like the overall sport itself, girls wrestling has continued to grow at Waukon as well, and the Lady Indians will also be part of this season’s history as a group of 12 young ladies will make up their own team this winter, competing with a full schedule of dual meet and tournament competition.

“The excitement is high this season due to sanctioning,” Waukon girls wrestling head coach Dani Bucknell shared. “Over 2,000 girls are entered into Track Wrestling for this season in the state of Iowa, that’s double last year’s numbers.”

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams got their 2022-2023 seasons off to a successful start, as both Indian squads recorded victories over Tripoli at home Tuesday, November 22, and did so in a big way by margins of at least 700 pins. The Lady Indians posted a 2030-1313 triumph and the Waukon boys rolled to a 2894-2042 win.

The bowling Indians are next scheduled to hit the road for back-to-back Friday matches, competing at Decorah December 2 and then at North Iowa December 9. Waukon’s bowlers will then have one final match before the holiday break, returning home for a Friday, December 16 contest with Waverly-Shell Rock.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

The Waukon bowling teams will each have plenty to look forward to in what they have returning to the lanes for this 2022-2023 season, whether that be in quality or quantity. Both the Indian girls and boys squads will return three of their top five bowlers from last season, the Lady Indians bowling to a 4-5 season record last winter and the Tribe boys rolling to a 5-4 mark on the year.

Within that returning quantity lies some of the greatest quality the program has ever seen in its young existence, as senior Cody Huinker returns from an historic season last winter that saw him accomplish some things no other Waukon High School bowler has. Huinker was part of a first-ever duo to qualify for last year’s Class 1A State Tournament and went on to not only bowl to the lane Tribe’s highest State Tournament finish with his sixth-place result among the Class 1A bowling elite, but he also achieved that finish by rolling the program’s highest-ever single-game total of 280 pins.

The 2022-2023 Kee girls basketball team will feature the program’s largest squad in a couple of years as 13 young ladies have taken to the court for early-season practices thus for the hardcourt Hawks. Leading the way for this year’s squad will be a returning letterwinning quartet from last winter’s 7-14 campaign that will guide the remainder of an otherwise overall young squad.

That veteran foursome includes the senior trio of Alaina Bakewell, Alison Wagner and Jaylyn Walleser, along with junior Mallory Mohn. They, along with fourth senior Neva Peterson, will be in charge of showing the varsity ropes to a trio of sophomores, including Haley Gonzales, Zoey Timmerman and Summer Walleser, and the Lady Hawks’ largest class representation of five freshmen that include Payton Becker, Lillian Kolsrud, Isabelle Mettille, Elena Schulte and Addison Winters.

Junior Mia Kurth wins 105-pound title; Junior Kloe Hemmersbach is 170-pound runner-up

The Waukon girls wrestling team was part of making wrestling history in the state of Iowa when it took to the mat Saturday, November 19 in its first competition of the inaugural season of Iowa high school girls wrestling as a sport officially sanctioned by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. In that first-ever competition for an officially-sanctioned Waukon girls wrestling team, 10 Lady Indians competed at the Decorah Girls Wrestling Invitational, placing eighth in the 14-team field behind the strength of seven top-eight placewinnings that were led by one each of a weight class championship and a runner-up finish.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

The Waukon High School cheerleading squad recently brought its fall competition season to a close, once again finishing among the best in the state of Iowa in those competition activities that spanned three consecutive weekends. The squad started its competition season Sunday, October 16 at the Spartan Cheer Challenge at the University of Dubuque (photo at center). The ladies swept the top finishes in both their divisions of competition, including the Class 1A/2A Time Out division and Class 1A/2A Stunt division.

The cheer Tribe then competed at the Triton Cheer Challenge held at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge Sunday, October 23 (pictured in lower photo). In that competition, the Indians placed first in the Class 2A Time Out competition and finished second in the Class 2A Stunt division.

The Kee volleyball team played its way through a 2022 campaign that resulted in a 1-23 season match record. That overall result played out to a 0-8 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Lady Hawks in ninth place in the final Upper Iowa Conference team standings.

The Kee netters’ lone victory of the season did come against an Upper Iowa Conference opponent, as the Lady Hawks defeated Postville in two sets at the Waukon Tournament in the middle of September. The regular season dual match between the two teams that counted in the Upper Iowa Conference standings did not fall that same way, as Kee battled the host Lady Pirates to a split of the first two sets of the match but then had the next two fall in Postville’s favor, including a fourth-set war that ended the match with a 24-26 Kee loss.

The 2022 Waukon volleyball team played its way to a 16-19 season record, the program’s most wins since the 2018 season in a schedule that did not shy away from strong competition. That overall mark, however, included a five-match Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) dual match effort that ended up shy of the win column to place the net Tribe in sixth place in the final NEIC dual match standings.

“We kept improving all season,” Waukon volleyball coach Randy Nordheim said. “Fourteen of our losses were to ranked teams, and we were able to play right with them nearly every match. I feel like we were on the brink of great things. Our improvements when it comes to a quicker offense, focus on receiving hard serves and serving aces will serve the team well in the future. The non-varsity coaching staff has gained a lot of experience over the past two years and has a great understanding of our strengths and weaknesses. Their future is bright.”