Sports

The 2016-2017 Waukon girls basketball season will see a collection of six varsity letterwinners return from a team last winter that produced a 9-12 season record. That letterwinning experience includes just one upperclassman, a fact that third-year Waukon girls basketball head coach Andy Sires sees as bittersweet.

“We are a very young team, which can be a positive because I have most of my core varsity team for four years,” Coach Sires said. “That is not the usual norm when it comes to varsity basketball. Most teams only have one or two underclassmen even dressing varsity.”

The Indians will get their season underway this Friday, November 18 when they travel to Lansing to take on fellow Allamakee County squad Kee for an early-season, non-conference match-up. The basketball Tribe will then wait until December 2 to open its NEIC season at New Hampton.

The 2015-2016 Kee girls basketball season was one for the history books and the record books, as the Lady Hawks played their way to a best-ever 22-3 season record, the program’s first-ever State Tournament qualification and the rewriting of a majority of the program’s individual and team records. Fortunately, for the Kee basketball girls the 2016-2017 season brings back a good number of authors of those historical chapters in the 10 returning letterwinners from last winter.

“With only two seniors graduating from last year’s squad, we have a good amount of experience coming back,” Kee girls basketball head coach Dan Love said. “We are going to lean on that experience early while looking to work in the rest of the hard working crew. The returning letterwinners are going to need to show their poise under pressure and their ability to elevate the level of play of those around them.”

The Waukon High School cheerleading squad took part in a pair of competitions within the past several weeks, bringing home a pair of high-end trophies from both events. The Lady Indians competed Sunday, October 30 at the Triton Challenge hosted by Iowa Central College in Fort Dodge, topping a five-team field in the Class 1A/2A Time Out division of competition. Saturday, November 5 the Indian cheer squad took part in the Iowa High School State Cheer Championships in Des Moines, placing second out of 15 teams competing in that same Class 1A/2A Time Out division. Pictured above with their State Runner-Up trophy are: Left to right - Front row: Ayonna McKithen, Mariah Hancock, Jade Blake, Michaela Dehli, Jasmyn Enyart. Back row: Whitney Cota, Jaydon Snitker, Sydney Garrett, Kasinda McKee, Hannah Rogers, Miranda Reinhardt, Leah Enyart. The same girls are pictured below with their championship trophy from the Triton Challenge from October 30. Submitted photos.
 

Facing a large graduation loss from last season’s third State Play-Off qualifying team in the last four seasons, along with the narrowing of the State Play-Off field to half as many teams this season, there weren’t many outside the team huddle who gave the 2016 Waukon football team much of a chance to once again be a play-off contender, or even produce a winning season record, for that matter.

Luckily, it’s the ones inside that huddle who have more control over that result, doing so to the tune of a 6-3 season record and a 5-2 Class 2A District 4 mark that left the Indians third in their district and knocking on the door of yet another State Play-Off qualification. The trimming of the State Play-Offs by the Iowa High School Athletic Association to just a 16-team field to try and eliminate such a strenuous play-off schedule allowed for only the first two teams in each district to automatically qualify for postseason play, along with two at-large wild card teams.

The 2016 Kee football season played out to a 3-6 overall record, but 10 points or less in four of those losses would have made for a much different result for this season. All three of those Kee victories this season came in the Hawks’ Eight-Player District 3, where Kee ended up in fourth place in the final seven-team standings with a 3-3 record against District 3 foes.

Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank (FMSB) of Waukon and Decorah recently presented a check in the amount of $905 to the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club for proceeds the bank received through its 2016 Tailgate Party held during the Waukon High School Homecoming football game September 30. Serving hamburgers and hot dogs grilled by the Allamakee Cattlemen’s Association, the bank accepted free will donations for the meal with all proceeds being donated to the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club. Pictured below, left to right, Sara Miller and Barb Shull of Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank present the donation check to Shawn Nagel and Connie Gordon of the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club. Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank has presented $9,030.83 in donations to the Booster Club over the seven years this Homecoming tailgate event has been held. Submitted photo.
 

The 2016 Waukon Middle School football season has come to an end, and the coaching staff says the future looks bright for Indian football. The eighth grade team had 37 players out this year and ended the season with a 3-5 season record, being credited by the coaching staff for working hard and showing great progress throughout the season. The seventh grade team had 22 players out and ended with a 4-1-1 season record, with the coaching staff saying this group has great potential as they continue through their middle and high school careers. This year’s middle school football program was under the direction of coaches Blaine Snitker, Tim Bulman, Mason Berns and Tharin Benson.

The 2016 season came to a close for the Waukon boys cross country team where more than 50 other Class 2A teams would love to have been. For the third consecutive season the Indian distance delegation competed among the Class 2A elite, finishing in the same 12th-place spot they did last season in the final team standings.

BOYS TEAM SCORES
Mid-Prairie Wellman 98; Unity Christian 115; Western Christian 130; George-Little Rock 148; Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 163; South Hamilton 164; South Winneshiek 180; Clear Lake 186; East Marshall 191; Aplington-Parkersburg 194; Tipton 226; WAUKON 253; Ogden 274; Roland-Story 330; Monticello 376

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Kee girls cross country sophomore Katie Brennan makes her way along the course in her Class 1A State Cross Country Meet debut Saturday, October 29 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge. Brennan finished within the top 20% of the Class 1A elite at the season grand finale, edging out two other runners by less than one second at the finish line to place 29th overall out of 143 runners in a time of 20:57.0.

“It was not her best time but certainly a very respectable effort,” Kee girls cross country coach Pat Wagner said. “Her presence at Fort Dodge represents a big step for our program. It was an important weekend for our program. The high school girls got to witness Iowa’s best distance runners in action and I think they came away with a feeling that we can compete at that level. More than that, I felt like we came home with a goal of running there as a team next season.”

Senior Tyler O’Neill claims individual title to lead Indians to team crown by a single point

Heading into its Thursday, October 20 State Qualifying Meet at Monticello as Class 2A’s 15th-rated team and competing in a field that contained at least three other teams that either currently are or had been ranked within that same top-15 elite, the Waukon boys cross country team sent shockwaves through the Class 2A postseason by running to both the team and individual championships to earn qualification for the Class 2A State Cross Country Meet for the third consecutive season.