Sports

The Waukon girls track team is fielding 41 team members for its 2017 campaign, with more than half of this season’s team members being listed as returning letterwinners from last season. A total of 22 varsity veterans return for this season, some of them not only returning with experience at the highest level of Iowa high school competition with State Meet qualification, but also winning medals at that season grand finale last spring.

The Kee girls track team will field 21 members for the 2017 season, with just over half of this year’s squad returning with letterwinning experience. Within that returning veteran experience lies an even greater benefit for the Lady Hawks with a pair of those veterans bringing back with them experience from every high school competitor’s ultimate destination, the State Meet.

A squad of 55 members holds a great deal of promise for the 2017 Waukon boys track team this spring, but that promise won’t have a great deal of experience to benefit from. Just 10 of this year’s Indian track and fieldsters return with varsity letterwinning experience, as the track Tribe graduated a large group of strong competitors last spring.

Those veteran 10 are led by six seniors in Austin Day, Adam Gruman, Hunter Jensen, Tyler O’Neill, Brandon Regan and Blain Swenson. Juniors Evan Armstead, Abe Schwartz, Mitchell Snitker and Isaiah Welch round out this season’s returning letterwinning experience.

The Kee boys track team is fielding one of its largest squads in recent seasons, as 23 young men have reported for early-season duty this spring. While the old saying goes “there is strength in numbers,” the numbers where the strength of varsity letterwinning experience comes from are not all that high, with just four varsity veterans returning this season.

“There are a lot more boys out this year than in the past,” Kee boys track coach Nick Mooney said. “However, very few of them have significant experience and I will be looking to those more experienced guys to help out at practice by setting a good tempo and sharing their knowledge of skills.”

Entry Name Score
Dana Waters 55
Karen Mathis 54
Annabelle Dibert 54
Carol Johnson 53
Neal Corwin 52
James Bucher 51
Paul Norton 51
Jarod Dahlstrom 51
Marlene Houg 51
Heather Delaney 50
Samantha Herman 50
Chad Wilson 50
Crystal Corwin 50
Ellen Lenth 50
Val Reinke 50
Bob Stilwell 50
Cory Huinker 49
Jaime Waters 49
Nathan Wood 49
Zach Rethwisch 49
David Decker 49
Harvey Estebo 49
Molly Ottaway 49
Ralph Hammel, Sr. 49
Anna Quillin 48
Tami Stilwell 48
Jerry Schoenthal 48
Dave Martin 48
Renee Martin 48
Mari Delaney 48
Claire Beyer 48
Brent Beyer 48
Ron P. Herman 48
Miles Hansmeier 48
Kristina Dibert 48
Emily Hammel 48
Jim Winters 48
Russell Jones 48
Francis Ottaway 48
Brenda Houg 48
Ashley Jones 48
Darwin Johnson 48

Waukon wrestling 182-pound senior Blain Swenson competed among the top senior wrestlers from northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota at the 16th annual Iowa-Minnesota All-Star Border Battle dual meet hosted by Crestwood High School in Cresco Friday, March 10. Pictured above, Swenson controls two-time Minnesota State Tournament placewinner Travis Capelle of Stewartville on the way to a 6-2 loss in their match late in the All-Star dual. The Minnesota squad won the event, 37-30, to even up the annual series sponsored by the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in Cresco at eight wins each.
 

Waukon High School and Luther College alumnus Greg Lonning was inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Division III Hall Fame Thursday, March 9 at the NWCA Hall of Fame Banquet held at the La Crosse Center Ballroom in La Crosse, WI. The banquet and induction ceremony were part of the NCAA Division III National Wrestling Championships also held at the La Crosse Center this past weekend, March 10-11.

A 1979 graduate and State Wrestling placewinner at Waukon High School and a 1984 graduate of Luther College, Lonning was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a wrestling coach. He also had the honor of sharing that induction ceremony honoring with one of his former wrestlers, three-time All-America honoree and 1996 NCAA Champion at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Jeff O’Gara, who is also currently an assistant wrestling coach at Luther College in Decorah.

The 2016-2017 Waukon wrestling season saw the Indian mat program take some small steps forward, but forward nonetheless. The wrestling Tribe posted a season record of 9-16, including a mark of 1-5 in Northeast Iowa Conference competition.

This season’s nine wins were an improvement over last season’s seven dual meet victories, and that single Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) victory, a mid-season triumph over Oelwein, was the mat Tribe’s first NEIC dual meet victory in six seasons. The Indians also won the team championship at the Riceville Tournament this season.

The winter of 2016-2017 saw the inauguration of a high school bowling season at Waukon High School, and even though, as one might expect, there were some growing pains with a brand new season for a program never before undertaken, that growth carried over from pains to the establishment of a program with a promising future.

“I told the kids at the beginning of the season that you only get one first season and we have to put a good foundation in place,” Waukon bowling coach Jerry Keenan said. “This season has been a great experience for the participants. It allowed for another opportunity for high school students to get involved in an extracurricular activity. The bowlers had an enjoyable experience and made a lot of new friends along the way. It will be a lifelong activity for some. Bowling was a great addition to the extra-curriculars at our school and I thank the administration, the school board, and Scott Oder at Odie’s Place for making this opportunity happen.”

The Waukon boys basketball team played its way to a 6-15 season record but shot its way to a new school record in the process. A new season-best mark of 170 three-point field goals far surpassed the previous record of 138 established by the 2000-2001 basketball Indians.

“As far as season highlights go, this was one of the best outside shooting teams that we have had in Waukon,” Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann said. “Our shooting kept us close in a lot of games.”

That overall season mark included a record of 2-10 in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, leaving the Indians in sixth place in the final seven-team NEIC standings. Those two wins in conference play came against Oelwein, the team that finished below the basketball Tribe in this year’s final standings.