Sports

The Waukon football team took a step forward toward possibly continuing its recent trend of district championships when the grid Tribe traveled to Oelwein Friday, September 29. That step was, perhaps, the easiest of the Indians’ district journey, as they jumped to a 14-0 lead over the yet winless host Huskies on the way to a 49-20 triumph and the Tribe’s first win streak of the season with a second consecutive victory.

“We started out with a good kick-off return to set up a short field, and we knew we needed to be aggressive offensively, as we have had trouble stopping Oelwein in the past,” Waukon football head coach Chad Beermann said. “So, we wanted to take the ball and get points right away.”

Following back-to-back losses to the two front-running teams in its Eight-Player District 3, the Kee football team was looking to turn the corner when it hosted West Central Friday, September 29 for its annual Homecoming game. Taking that corner at full speed to jump to a 40-0 headstart after just one quarter of play, the grid Hawks not only turned that corner but also turned their recent fortune into the happiest of Homecomings with a 60-8 triumph over the single-win Blue Devils.

The Hawks will now hit the road this Friday, October 6, traveling to the home of a Central Elkader squad that has yet to win a game this season. The Warriors have allowed 68 or more points in four of their six games this season, including a 79-0 loss at Riceville this Friday, September 29.

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The Waukon volleyball team played through one of its busiest weeks of the season this past week, first competing on back-to-back nights to start the week before wrapping it up with a weekend tournament. The Lady Indians played to opposite results on each end of that week’s worth of competition, as they first swept MFL/MarMac in three straight sets at home Monday, September 25 before waging war against Decorah through a five-set marathon to defeat the Vikings and secure their first dual match win in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play in two years.

Another week of pulling double duty in the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) left the Kee volleyball team facing a formidable task this past week of matching up against the only two teams still undefeated in UIC play at this point in the season. Although battling strong throughout, the Lady Hawks couldn’t quite come up with the first UIC blemishes for either team, falling at North Fayette Valley Tuesday, September 26 and at home to Central Elkader Thursday, September 28.

Now holding a 2-11 season record that includes a 1-6 mark in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play, Kee’s net squad is next scheduled for one final week of UIC double duty this week, playing at West Central Tuesday, October 3 and then also traveling to Clayton Ridge Thursday, October 5. The Lady Hawks will then play in the Riceville Tournament Saturday, October 7 before wrapping up their regular season Tuesday, October 10 at home against MFL/MarMac.

The Waukon boys cross country team made sure everyone knew there is no place like home when the Indians hosted their own Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 19. Led by a dominating sweep of the top three individual placewinnings in the varsity meet, the distance Tribe claimed half of the race’s top 10 individual finishes with all of its scored runners, tallying just 21 team points to leave second-place Decorah behind by 30 points.

The Indians were next scheduled to compete at the Jesup Invitational Tuesday, September 26 before wrapping up their regular season schedule Tuesday, October 3 at the South Winneshiek Invitational in Calmar. The distance Tribe will then host the annual Northeast Iowa Conference Meet Tuesday, October 10.

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Coming off the program’s first loss in district play in six years one week earlier, playing in a steady rain and facing a team that had run for nearly 500 yards the week before, the Waukon football team overcame all those challenges to make it a happy Homecoming Friday, September 22 with a 34-20 win over Crestwood. After the two teams raced to a 14-14 scoreboard knot after just the first quarter and the grid Tribe faced a 20-14 deficit with less than two minutes before the halftime break, the Indians took control for the game’s remainder to rattle off 20 unanswered points and pitch a second-half shut-out for their Homecoming victory.

The Kee cross country team traveled its shortest distances to compete at great lengths in a pair of meets this past week, pulling double duty for the week at the Waukon Invitational Tuesday, September 19 and then just across the river at the Pirate Nation Invitational hosted by De Soto High School in Wisconsin Saturday, September 23. The Kee boys placed eighth in the larger Waukon Invitational and ran to a fourth-place team finish at De Soto, claiming an individual championship at that meet in Wisconsin.

“The Kee Hawks competed in two of their most challenging meets of the season and benefited from each,” Kee cross country coach Pat Wagner said. “Waukon’s course is challenging and the competition is excellent. De Soto’s cross country course provides the athletes with a grueling endurance test. All Hawk runners significantly improved their times at each race from 2022 to 2023. Thanks to all of our fans for coming and supporting the team.”

In a battle of 3-1 teams Friday, September 22, the Kee football team hosted Riceville in a home District 3 game on a rain-soaked evening that saw the visiting Wildcats come in and take away the ball six times, along with the victory, as the Kee grid squad fell by a 32-20 final result. With each team having just a single loss to Eight-Player District 3-leading Don Bosco, the game was essentially a battle for the runner-up spot in the district behind the perennial power Dons, but three each of fumbles and interceptions given away while getting just one interception in return limited the host Hawks enough to suffer their second consecutive loss of the season.

“We made too many mistakes to beat a good football team,” Kee football head coach Chad Winters shared. “To be minus-five in the turnover department and still having a chance late in the game speaks volumes to what type of team we can be if we play clean football.”

The Kee volleyball team recorded its first two match wins of this season, with both of those victories coming against a Postville squad still in search of its first victory this fall. The first of those triumphs came in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) dual match play Tuesday, September 12 in sweeping fashion of three sets at home. A repeat of that feat came Saturday, September 16 at the Waukon Tournament, where another Hawk victory over Postville was their lone win in four matches that also included match losses in two sets to eventual tournament pool champion Crestwood, MFL/MarMac and North Crawford, WI.

Kee’s net squad is next scheduled to host Turkey Valley Tuesday, September 19 before traveling to Calmar to take on South Winneshiek Thursday, September 21. The Hawks will then pull another week of double duty, traveling to North Fayette Valley Tuesday, September 26 before hosting Central Elkader Thursday, September 28.

In its only competition of the week, the Waukon volleyball team played host to its annual Waukon Invitational Tournament Saturday, September 16. The tournament of nine total teams has typically been played in an early session of three pools of three teams in round-robin fashion, with the teams then being placed in a late session bracketed tournament according to their pool play results to play out to final placewinnings.

This season’s tournament, however, would only feature two pools of round-robin play, as limited availability of officials did not allow for the regular tournament format to be played out. Those two pools were split up between one four-team pool that played in an early-morning session of round-robin matches, with the tournament’s five other teams playing in their own round-robin pool later that morning into the afternoon.