Sports

The Waukon girls track and field team got its first taste of team competition for this 2023 season when the Lady Indians took part in the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) Indoor Meet hosted at Luther College in Decorah Tuesday, March 21. No team scores were kept, but the Lady Indians recorded some high-level finishes among their NEIC peers, including a trio of runner-up finishes and four third-place results.

All three of the field events featured one of those high-end track Tribe finishes earned by junior competitors, including Kaitlyn Krambeer with a 16’1.5” long jump for second place, Cameron Johnson clearing 5’0” to tie for second in the high jump, and Kloe Hemmersbach launching the shot put 33’8.5” for third place. The Lady Indians’ 4x800 relay claimed their only other runner-up finish, with the crew of junior Mia Kurth, freshman Elle Wilkins, and seniors Katerina Kovarik and Paige Hansmeier teaming up for a second-place clocking of 10:52.06.

The Waukon boys track and field squad began its 2023 schedule of team competition at the Northeast Iowa Conference Indoor Meet hosted at Luther College in Decorah Tuesday, March 21. No team scores were kept at the meet, but the Indians did win four events, with nearly all of those wins coming from the Tribe’s distance competitors, providing ample evidence of head coach Ted Snitker’s pre-season forecast of the strength of this year’s distance-running crew.

Those four event triumphs were evenly split between individual and relay events. The individual victories included senior Nathan O’Neill winning the 1600 meter run in a time of 4:44.40 and fellow senior Josh Keenan topping the 800 meter run field with a clocking of 2:15.90.

Following a season that graduated seven seniors and the departure of at least its top six producers in every statistical category from a 12-12 overall campaign last winter, the Kee boys basketball team knew there was going to be plenty of work to do heading into its 2022-2023 season. With just one senior and two juniors returning with their upperclassman leadership this season and mixing with a sophomore group that provided the largest class size that doubled its two elder grade levels, the Hawks meshed all of those efforts together to produce a 7-15 season record during this recently completed season, including a 6-10 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Kee boys sixth in the final nine-team UIC standings.

The Kee girls and boys track teams got their competition season underway indoors at the annual Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Indoor Meet held Friday, March 17 at Luther College in Decorah. No team scores were kept at this inaugural competition of the season, but the Hawk girls and boys each brought home event victories among their UIC peers, the Lady Hawks claiming three gold medals and the Hawks one as well.

Both Kee teams are next scheduled to start their outdoor season at the Tuesday, March 28 Sumner-Fredericksburg Invitational. The Hawk boys will then compete in the Waukon Early Bird Invitational March 30 and the Hawk girls will take part in the North Fayette Valley Invitational March 31 before both teams return to the track April 4.

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A total of 10 letterwinners return for the Waukon boys track team for its 2023 season, with those veteran returnees coming from all grade eligible grade levels to help headline this spring’s squad of 59 young men reporting for early-season duty. The experience that a trio those veterans brings back with them comes at the ultimate level of competition, the State Track Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.

Four of those returning veterans come from this year’s senior class, including those three State Meet competitors. Nathan O’Neill brings two consecutive years of competing in that season grand finale in individual distance races, and he also joined fellow seniors Nate Keenan and Josh Keenan in competing in the 4x800 at last spring’s State Meet as well. James VanderVelden rounds out that list of senior returning letterwinners.

The 2023 Waukon girls track team will benefit from having more than half of this season’s squad of 26 young ladies reporting for early-season duty returning with letterwinning experience. Furthering that benefit is the fact that 10 of this spring’s returning letterwinners bring back with them at least one year of State Meet experience, and in most all of those cases multiple years of competing at that ultimate level of competition.

All five of this year’s senior competitors bring back letterwinning experience, including Maggie Criswell, Paige Hansmeier, Jayden Knox and Katerina Kovarik as two-year State Meet participants and Bailey Sherman competing in that season grand finale last spring. “I look for the seniors to be the leaders on the team,” Waukon girls track coach Bob Wasson said. “All five of the seniors have run at the State Track Meet, so they know the work that needs to be done to reach that goal.”

Waukon High School senior softball player Kiana Krueger signed a letter of intent Wednesday, March 8 to play softball at Culver-Stockton College located in Canton, MO. Pictured above at that signing event are, left to right, Kris, Zenan, Kiana, Remig and Sarah Krueger. The Indian first baseman and left-handed hitter says she chose Culver-Stockton because of “where it’s located and the campus is really pretty.” She intends to study Biology there on a pre-medical track.

The Waukon boys and girls track teams got their 2023 competition season underway with both teams taking multiple competitors to compete in multiple events at their respective Dickinson Relays indoor track and field competitions hosted at the UNI-Dome on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. No team scores were kept at the meets, but both the Indian girls and boys teams each brought home one top-10  event finish in their respective competitions, with the girls meet taking place Monday, March 6 and the boys competing Tuesday, March 7 in their respective fields that each consisted of more than 100 teams from all school sizes and classes of competition.

Both the Waukon girls and boys track teams are scheduled to compete in the Northeast Iowa Conference Indoor Meet hosted at Luther College Tuesday, March 21. They are both then also slated to compete at the Sumner-Fredericksburg Invitational Tuesday, March 28.

The Kee boys track team will have a majority of this season’s squad returning as letterwinning veterans from previous seasons, as 11 of this spring’s 17 team members bring back veteran experience from the track or field events. All but one this season’s upperclassmen bring back at least one year of varsity track and field experience this spring.

Those varsity veterans include all four of this season’s seniors, Ben Franceschetti, Cota Gavin, Carter Goetzinger and Tom Troendle, and all five members of the junior class, Brendan Croft, Kaleb Drape, Cadan Evanson, Andrew Kolsrud and Jackson Schulte. Two of this spring’s sophomores also earned their first varsity letter last spring, including Jordan Cota and Brendan Jones.

The 2023 Kee girls track team will benefit from half of its team members returning as letterwinners from last year’s squad, with some of that experience being gained at the ultimate level of competition. This season’s squad of 14 young ladies will have three seniors, and two each of juniors and sophomores who come back after consistently competing for the Hawks last season at the varsity level of competition.

The Lady Hawks are slated to get their 2023 campaign underway against their fellow UIC squads in the annual UIC Indoor Meet being hosted at Luther College in Decorah this Friday, March 17. Both the Kee boys and girls will be competing at that indoor meet before the Lady Hawks will then prepare to start their outdoor season at the March 28 Sumner-Fredericksburg Invitational.