Sports

The Waukon girls track and field team got its 2025 season off to a relatively busy start for early in the season, competing at a couple indoor venues this past week at different degrees of multiple events. The Lady Indians had multiple athletes compete in seven events at the Dickinson Relays hosted by the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls Tuesday, March 11 before having a pair of relay events compete in the Iowa Association of Track Coaches (IATC) Indoor Championships hosted by Iowa State University in Ames Thursday-Friday, March 13-14.

The Waukon girls had more than a dozen athletes compete in seven different events at the girls Dickinson Relays in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls March 11. The Lady Indians recorded a pair of top-25 event finishes in their respective fields among teams and individual competitors from all class sizes throughout the state of Iowa.

Waukon High School senior Ava Hooten signed a National Letter of Intent Thursday morning, March 13 to commit her gymnastics talents to the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in Philadelphia, PA. Pictured at right at the signing event with Ava (seated in front) are (left to right standing in the back) her grandmother, Terry Hooten, and her parents, Adam and Jennifer Hooten of Waterville. Although gymnastics is not an extracurricular activity offered at Waukon High School, Hooten has been training and competing with TNT Gymnastics out of Richland Center, WI throughout her high school career, ultimately attaining Level 10 gymnast status, which is the highest level within the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics program, representing the final and most challenging stage before potentially progressing to the Elite level eligible to compete in the Olympics.

Waukon girls basketball senior Keira McCormick has been selected to play in the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Larry Niemeyer Senior All-Star series this coming weekend at the new Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls. McCormick will be playing in the Class 3A White/Gray game this Saturday, March 15, beginning at approximately 11:45 a.m.

The day-long series begins at 9:15 a.m. with the Class 3A/4A/5A Select game, followed by the Class 4A/5A White/Gray game at 10:30 a.m. and McCormick’s Class 3A White/Gray game at 11:45 a.m. The Class 1A/2A Select game will tip off at 1 p.m. followed by the 2A White/Gray game at 2:15 p.m. and the Class 1A White/Gray game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. to wrap up the day’s competition.
 

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams fielded teams on each end of the experience spectrum and also ended up experiencing results on each end of the win-loss spectrum during their 2024-2025 winter campaigns. Ultimately, however, there was some history made for the program at the end of the season, as the Lady Indians had their first-ever qualification for every bowler’s ultimate destination - the State Tournament.

Fielding a team headlined by three seniors, one junior and two freshmen in most competitions, the Waukon girls bowled to a 6-2 dual meet record this winter. In their squad of nine bowlers on the roster, the Waukon bowling boys fielded just one each of senior, junior and sophomore bowlers, along with six freshmen, with sometimes as many as four of those freshmen taking to the lanes at various competitions throughout the year to roll their way to a 0-8 season record in dual meet competitions.

The Class 1A Region 5 championship game was the only Class 1A “Sweet Sixteen” match-up this season not to feature any of the small schools’ top-15 ranked teams, as the Kee girls basketball team and the Dunkerton Raiders were two of just four unranked teams remaining in the championship round of each of Class 1A’s eight regional tournaments when they took to the court Wednesday, February 26 at New Hampton High School. In addition to their unranked status, the two teams also brought other similarities into that Region 5 title tilt, including nearly identical win-loss records, nearly equal winning streaks over the past month and the fact that each of them had defeated another of Class 1A’s top-10 ranked teams to advance to this match-up - the Lady Hawks picking off fifth-rated Riceville, 51-42, and the Lady Raiders doing likewise to 10th-rated East Buchanan, 50-40.

Waukon High School 2023 graduate Carter Schellsmidt recently committed to furthering his collegiate baseball career by signing a letter of agreement with Valparaiso University located in Valparaiso, IN. The Crusader baseball program competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is also a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.

A five-year varsity mainstay during his high school baseball career for the Indians, Schellsmidt etched his name among the best players in the history of the program. During his senior season at the catcher position, Schellsmidt set a new single-season record for runners thrown out caught stealing with 21 such denials that also led all Class 2A catchers and ranked second among all high school catchers in the state of Iowa during that 2023 season.

The Waukon boys basketball team both began and ended its postseason tournament journey this past week, ultimately having its 2024-2025 campaign brought to a close in the process. The Indians opened their Class 2A District 5 Tournament road with a 59-50 home win over New Hampton Monday, February 17 but then fell victim to a 70-50 loss at ninth-rated Aplington-Parkersburg in the District 5 Semifinals Thursday, February 20 to have their season brought to completion.

The Waukon girls basketball team faced a formidable task in seeking to continue its season, traveling to the home of a Forest City team that had just a single loss on the season and a number-four ranking among the Class 3A elite Wednesday, February 19 for a Class 3A Region 3 semifinals match-up against another squad of Indians. For three and a half quarters, Waukon’s Tribe paid little heed to the ranking or record of its fellow Indian opponent, trading leads with Forest City throughout the first half and trailing by just four points with two minutes left to play, but those final two minutes belonged almost entirely to the host Indians, as they finished the game with a final 8-3 surge to finally shake the visiting Tribe and end Waukon’s season with a 50-41 defeat.

The differing ends of the spectrum for the Waukon boys wrestling team at the Class 2A State Tournament ended up yielding the same result for the two Indian matmen who qualified for this season’s grand finale held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines Wednesday-Saturday, February 19-22. The debut for freshman 120-pounder Kaden Mitchell and the return of senior 157-pounder Holten Palmer among the Class 2A elite in their respective weight classes were each cut short with losses in both matches the Tribe mat pair wrestled at the tournament.

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The postseason road for the Kee girls basketball team looked to have some curves in it this past week, as the Lady Hawks’ Class 1A Region 5 Tournament matched them up, first, with a co-champion of the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) they had just lost to about a month earlier and, then, took them to the home of one of Class 1A’s highest regarded teams. But Kee’s girls ended up sitting firmly in the driver’s seat in navigating both of those projected curves. The Hawks hosted fellow UIC foe Turkey Valley in a regional quarterfinals contest Tuesday, February 18, leaving little doubt in fully deciding a regular season split with the UIC co-champs by handing them a 46-28 drubbing in this third match-up that had much more riding on it than just win-loss bragging rights.