Sports

The Waukon softball team played to an even record this week, suffering a pair of losses early in its schedule before winning three of its final four games. Those early losses saw the Indians struggle offensively to fall to MFL/MarMac at home, 3-0, Wednesday, June 3 before splitting a Northeast Iowa Conference road doubleheader at Charles City, falling by an 11-0 count in five innings before bouncing back with a 5-4 nightcap victory. The softball Tribe then won two of three games at the Jerry Newton Classic hosted by Charles City Saturday, June 6, defeating Forest City, 8-5, and St. Ansgar, 5-4 in eight innings, but falling to Iowa Falls-Alden, 3-1.

The Waukon baseball team came up just shy of an undefeated opening week of competition this past week, winning two of its first three games of the 2015 season. Mother Nature also had a say in the baseball Tribe’s early-season schedule, postponing the Indians’ originally scheduled season-opener at North Fayette Valley from Tuesday, May 26 to July 1.
Following that postponement, Waukon ended up opening its season at Clayton Ridge Friday, May 29, pulling out a 5-4 road triumph. The baseball Indians then played to a second-place finish at the annual Shooky Fink Tournament hosted by Kee High School Saturday, May 30, defeating Postville, 11-3, in the opening round of the tournament before falling in the final inning of the championship game to the host school, 7-6, to end up as the tournament runner-up.

The Waukon softball team opened its 2015 season with a three-game home stand, having to postpone its original Tuesday, May 26 season-opener due to rainy weather but ultimately making that postponement worth the wait with a thrilling, 5-4 victory over Central Elkader Friday, May 29. Prior to that first win of the season, the softball Tribe was dealt a doubleheader sweep at home Thursday, May 28 by Class 4A 12th-rated Waverly-Shell Rock by scores of 8-0 and 10-0 in six innings.
Off to a 1-2 start, the Indians will host MFL/MarMac Wednesday, June 3 before hitting the road for the first time this season with a Northeast Iowa Conference match-up at Charles City Thursday, June 4. The softball Tribe will then return to Charles City for a weekend tournament Saturday, June 6 before hosting three more nights of softball, Monday, June 8 against Decorah, Tuesday, June 9 against South Winneshiek and Thursday, June 11 against New Hampton.
 

The Kee softball team opened its 2015 season in somewhat surprising fashion, falling in its non-conference season opener but then rebounding nicely for an Upper Iowa Conference sweep. That season-opening surprise was a 6-1 loss the Lady Hawks suffered at Class 3A Decorah Wednesday, May 27 in a game postponed from the night before due to rainy weather. The rebound, however, resulted in a road sweep at Edgewood-Colesburg the very next night, Thursday, May 28, by scores of 7-3 and 20-1 in just five innings.
“The loss against Decorah was a hard pill to swallow, but early in the season it is good to learn from the mistakes we make,” Kee softball coach Liz Hill said. “The game against Edgewood-Colesburg was more enjoyable for everyone. We were more relaxed and had fun playing the game.”

The Kee baseball team played to differing extremes of results to open its 2015 season this past week. The Hawks got their new campaign off to a rough start with a road doubleheader sweep suffered at Decorah Wednesday, May 27, 9-1 and 10-0 in five innings, but bounced back in championship fashion with a pair of one-run triumphs in sweeping to a title in its own Shooky Fink Tournament Saturday, May 30. Edging out a pair of Class 3A teams, Kee got by Crestwood, 9-8, before fighting back from a 6-0 championship deficit to pull off a 7-6 defeat of Waukon for the tournament crown.
The baseball Hawks were scheduled to play an Upper Iowa Conference doubleheader at Clayton Ridge Monday, June 1 before closing the week with back-to-back home doubleheaders against Starmont and Waukon Thursday and Friday, June 4 and 5, respectively. Kee will then play just a home doubleheader with South Winneshiek Wednesday, June 10 before playing in the St. Ansgar Tournament Saturday, June 13.

For the second consecutive season, the Waukon baseball team will return a dozen players with varsity letterwinning experience, and this year’s crew will look to improve on last season’s 6-25 overall diamond campaign. Included within that veteran core is a group of seven seniors, most of whom are multi-year letterwinners who would like nothing more than for this to be their best high school baseball season yet.
That list of senior veterans includes Adam Benzing, Sully Bucheit, Michael Howe, Marshall Lyons, Jake Ronan, Landon Sivesind and Brock Waters, and they will be looked to for providing leadership to an equally impressive number of younger players in the Waukon baseball program, as 40 young men in grades eight through 12 have reported for early-season duties. Additional returning letterwinners include juniors Haden Hammel, Peyton Hesse, Will Keenan and Chris Miller, as well as freshman Mitchell Snitker.

by Val Meyer

by Val Meyer

An abundance of familiarity will make up the 2015 Waukon softball program, as 11 varsity letterwinners return from a squad that posted a 7-25 season record in 2014. And even though there will be a change at the head coaching helm of the Indian softball program this season, a familiar face will assume that lead role as well.
Joe O’Neill is not only familiar because he is an area native and 1992 graduate of Waukon High School, but he has also served as assistant varsity softball coach for the past two seasons and was also previously an assistant coach for the program in 1996 before assuming the head coaching role for a year during the 1997 season. A move to Forest City also resulted in a multi-year varsity assistant coaching role with those softball Indians as well.

The Waukon boys track team ended its season where every high school track program dreams of, competing among the state’s elite in the Class 3A field of the Iowa High School State Track Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines Thursday through Saturday, May 21-23. Within the four events that qualified for this year’s season grand finale, the Indians performed to placewinnings within the Class 3A top-20 in three of them, just missing that mark in the fourth as well.