Sports

The Waukon Park & Recreation Youth Soccer Program is for boys and girls in Kindergarten through sixth grade. Basic fundamentals of soccer will be taught along with team participation. Teams will be grouped together as follows: Kindergarteners will be alone in their own league, first and second graders will be together in a league, third and fourth graders will be together in a league, and fifth and sixth graders will be together in their own league.

Different size fields and balls will be used to accommodate the different ages and skill levels. All players must wear shin guards and those shin guards must be covered by socks or pants. Cleats are optional.

In a game as close as the win-loss records of the two teams playing in it, the Waukon boys basketball team (14-8) battled Dyersville Beckman (13-8) right down to the wire in their Class 2A District 7 championship game Wednesday, February 21 played at Western Dubuque High School. That last-second showdown saw the Indians miss out on one final opportunity to either tie or win the game, instead falling by a 64-62 final result to have their season brought to a close.

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The ninth-rated Kee girls basketball team outlasted sixth-rated West Hancock, 46-39, to win its Class 1A Region 2 championship game played Wednesday, February 21 at New Hampton. Playing the Eagles to a 39-39 scoreboard knot at the end of four quarters, the Hawks didn't let the Eagles score at all in the extra frame to secure the victory and their second-ever State Tournament qualification. The Lady Hawks (22-1) will now play fourth-rated Newell-Fonda (24-0) Wednesday, February 28 in the opening round of the Class 1A State Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, beginning at 5 p.m. The winner will advance on to the Class 1A semifinals Friday, March 2 at 3:15 p.m. to play the winner of the first-round match-up between second-rated Central Decatur (24-0) and 10th-rated Montezuma (20-3), with that semifinals winner then advancing on to the Class 1A State Championship game Saturday evening, March 3 at 7 p.m.

Like father, like son the old saying goes, and for Waukon 170-pound wrestling senior Tristan Hansmeier, his first-ever State Tournament qualification ended up telling that tale, as he joined his father, Waukon wrestling volunteer assistant coach Dave Hansmeier, as a sixth-place State Tournament finisher for the wrestling Indians. Hansmeier won two of five matches in his season grand finale debut to finish as this year’s Class 2A 170-pound sixth-place finisher, getting those two wins early in the tournament before falling in his final three matches.

Junior Michael Sweeney rewrites single-season scoring record set three decades ago by Scott Sawyer

The stripes on the floor proved to be the difference in the Waukon boys basketball team having its season ended or moving further down the postseason tournament trail, as the Indians survived their Class 2A District 7 semifinals match-up with Jesup with a 59-56 escape Thursday, February 15. Playing to an initial 20-6 lead after just one period, the Indians had to fend off a methodical comeback effort by the visiting J-Hawks that cut that lead to just a single point in the final seconds.

The Waukon girls basketball team knew its postseason road would involve a climb through the pinnacle of the Class 3A rankings when top-rated and undefeated Crestwood was released as part of the basketball Tribe’s Region 4 bracket. That realization came Wednesday, February 14 in the Region 4 semifinals at Crestwood, but little did anyone know it would also involve season-high scoring efforts from the Cadets’ two leading scorers coupled with a defensive effort that would lead to a season-low scoring total for the Indians in a 67-30 defeat that brought the Tribe’s 2017-2018 campaign to a close.

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Waukon sophomore finishes 15th at season grand finale

History was made when the Waukon bowling teams competed in their Class 1A State Qualifying Meet at Oneota Lanes in Decorah Tuesday, February 13, as Waukon boys bowling sophomore Matt Rozzell bowled his way to the first-ever State Meet qualification in the two-year history of the program. Rozzell claimed the fifth and final at-large qualifying spot of non-championship Class 1A performances from across the state of Iowa.

The Monday, February 19 Class 1A regional championship game for the Kee girls basketball team vs. West Hancock has been postponed to Tuesday, February 20, still with a 7 p.m. start, at New Hampton High School. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union said it will continue to monitor the weather situation and may further postpone that and many other games to Wednesday, February 21 should the forecasted icy weather come to reality.

A second consecutive three-game schedule for the Waukon boys basketball team went a bit better than its predecessor, the Indians winning two of their three contests this past week to wrap up their regular season. The week began with an 82-62 loss at Decorah Tuesday, February 6 that could prove to be the difference between a lone or shared third-place finish in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings pending the Vikings’ final NEIC game at Crestwood February 13. The Tribe bounced back from that loss to finish the week with a 90-71 home win at South Winneshiek Thursday, February 8 before closing out their NEIC and regular season with a 63-55 win at New Hampton Saturday, February 10 in a game postponed by weather from the previous evening.

Waukon High School seniors Abe Schwartz and Mitchell Snitker signed their respective National Letters of Intent Wednesday, February 7 to take their football talents to the NCAA Division II level of play. Schwartz inked his commitment to Concordia University-St. Paul in St. Paul, MN, while Snitker committed to Winona State University in Winona, MN. Having played together on the same team throughout their middle school and high school careers, and ultimately helping lead the Indians to the Class 2A State Championship this past fall, the two could actually take the field together again, but on opposing teams, as both Concordia-St. Paul and Winona State play in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and are on each other’s schedule each year, with Upper Iowa University in Fayette also belonging to that same conference and being an annual opponent of each squad as well.