Sports

Top-rated Lady Hawks edge out two-time State Champion Central Elkader on Warriors’ home course

The Kee cross country teams had their busiest week of the season, competing in a pair of meets within three days of one another. One of those meets was likely the largest the Hawks will compete in during the regular season, the Starmont Invitational Tuesday, September 12, where the Kee girls slipped to fifth place out of 18 teams with a squad not quite at full strength, and the Kee boys placed 16th out of 19 squads. The Hawks then took part in the Central Elkader Invitational Thursday, September 14, the Lady Hawks returning to full strength to claim their third meet title in five chances so far this season and the Kee boys finishing in third place.

The Hawks were next scheduled to compete at the Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 19. Kee will then participate in the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 26.

Seven Waukon High School (WHS) cheerleaders were among those nominated or who made the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) All-American Cheer Squad by attending NCA Summer Cheer Camp that took place at Village Creek Bible Camp, rural Lansing in early August. WHS cheerleaders Michaela Dehli, Ayonna McKithen, Taya Duehr, Jasmyn Enyart, Oonagh Ahouse, Aleah Howes and Allie Bieber were among those nominated on motion, technique, stunting ability, and other qualities the NCA staff is looking for.

Of more than 800 high school cheerleaders and dancers from across the country that will represent the camp brands of Varsity Spirit in the third annual Varsity Spirit Spectacular at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Orlando, FL from November 29-December 3 of this year, three WHS cheerleaders have chosen to attend this special event.

Hitting the road Friday, September 15 for the first time in its Eight-Player District 3 schedule this season, the Kee football team headed to the home of one of the District’s still unbeaten teams, Tripoli, a team that had outscored its first three opponents of this season by a combined 144-66 count and had racked up nearly 1,000 yards of combined offense in those first three games. Regardless of what had been accomplished by the high-powered Panthers in their previous games, the football Hawks had early opportunities to contend with Tripoli, but missed out on those opportunities and saw the game roll away to a 50-6 Kee defeat.

The Waukon girls cross country team competed in the uniquely-scored Dick Pollitt Go-Hawk Classic hosted by Waverly-Shell Rock Tuesday, September 5, finishing seventh in the overall 15-team field. The meet is run in “grade” format, where seniors and juniors compete in one race and sophomores and freshmen in another, and team scores are then kept for each grade level as well as an overall team tally.

Meet guidelines for the overall team scoring take the top five individual finishes for a team from each grade race, but no more than two runners from each grade level can be used by a team to calculate its final overall team score. The Indians used at least one scorer from each of the four different grade races to calculate their team score of 55 points that placed them seventh in the final 15 scoring team overall standings.

The Waukon boys cross country team competed in the uniquely-scored Dick Pollitt Go-Hawk Classic hosted by Waverly-Shell Rock Tuesday, September 5, finishing 10th in the final overall 16 scoring team standings based on the meet’s grade competition format and unique scoring system. With the meet matching grade levels in two separate races - seniors and juniors competing against one another in one race and sophomores and freshmen doing likewise in another race, and the finishes of only two runners from each grade race being allowed to count in the overall team score made up of five runners from each squad, the Indians finished with 98 team points.

OVERALL TEAM SCORES
Decorah 17; Charles City 27; Mason City 34; Waverly-Shell Rock 44; Western Dubuque 45; Denver 54; Webster City 61; West Delaware 65; Aplington-Parkersburg 86; WAUKON 98; Starmont 118; Grundy Center/G-R 142; Crestwood 149; Jesup 178; Hampton-Dumont 214; Independence 253

Big plays were a big factor in a big first step taken by the Waukon football team in opening their Class 2A District 4 schedule with a 53-35 victory at home over Dyersville Beckman Friday, September 8. The Indians struck on three scoring plays covering 216 yards in their first three possessions to bolt to a 22-0 headstart they would never really look back from in keeping their undefeated season and number-one ranking intact as District play got underway.

“We have a great deal of respect for Beckman as a program, so to jump on them like that out of the gate was pretty shocking,” Waukon football coach Chad Beermann said. “We know this group of players has that kind of ability, we just don’t always get to see it. Friday night it was on display in the first quarter, and most of the second.”

The Kee football team’s first victory of the season couldn’t have come at a better time than the start of District 3 play, as the Hawks played host to Central City Friday, September 8 and came away with a 24-6 triumph. For the third consecutive game Kee’s grid guys put together a strong first half effort, holding a halftime lead for the second consecutive week, but this time the Hawks continued that effort for the game’s remaining half as well, answering their only defensive letdown directly and coming up with some big defensive plays to further cement an overall strong defensive effort in the contest.

The Hawks are next scheduled to travel to Tripoli this Friday, September 15 to continue District 3 play against the 3-0 Tigers. Tripoli comes off a 68-8 trouncing at home over Central Elkader this past Friday, and also has wins of 34-30 over Riceville and 42-28 over Janesville to its early-season credit.

Unbeaten Tribe gridders ranked #1 in daily newspaper polls after first loss by previous #1 B-H/RV

A game that saw the Waukon football team more than double up its New Hampton host in total yardage didn’t turn out to yield that same result on the scoreboard in the final non-district match-up of this young 2017 football season Friday, September 1. A strong defensive stand by the Indians that limited the Chickasaws to just 166 yards of total offense was somewhat overshadowed by a handful of “unique” occurrences that helped keep the Chickasaws in the latest chapter of what has come to be a recent series of classic grid battles.

The Kee cross country team posted its most successful overall results in many years when it ran at the MFL/MarMac Invitational Thursday, August 31. The Hawk girls made a strong early-season statement by, literally, running past Class 1A’s most recently top-ranked team, two-time defending Class 1A State Champion Central Elkader, to claim team championship honors at the MFL/MarMac meet, while the Kee boys also showed marked improvement as this young season gets underway with a runner-up finish at the meet run at Tri-City Golf Course in rural Luana.

GIRLS VARSITY TEAM SCORES
KEE 25; Central Elkader 31; MFL/MarMac 70; Maquoketa Valley 104

BOYS VARSITY TEAM SCORES
Maquoketa Valley 15; KEE 87; Clayton Ridge 91; Central Elkader 93; MFL/MarMac 112; East Buchanan 119

The Waukon volleyball team competed to both start and end this past week, winning just one match out of a total of seven played during the week. The Indians started the week with a marathon dual match at home against MFL/MarMac, eventually surrendering the five-set battle by scores of 25-23, 21-25, 19-25, 25-22 and 13-15. After having the remainder of the school week free from competition, the Indians played six matches at the Mabel-Canton Classic hosted by Mabel-Canton High School in Minnesota Saturday, September 2, and won just one of those matches, 25-18 and 25-17 over Lanesboro, splitting two more, 26-24 and 8-25 against Grand Meadow and 25-23 and 22-25 against Spring Grove. The other three Indian matches at the event were all surrendered by sweeps, 7-25 and 17-25 against Mabel-Canton, 19-25 and 17-25 against Rushford-Peterson and 16-25 and 22-25 against Kingsland.