Sports

Senior 132-pounder Justin Murphy, 157-pound junior Holten Palmer each win tournament titles

The Kee boys basketball team continued its undefeated start to this season with another pair of victories, each of those coming on opposite ends of the final margin spectrum but both helping the bucket Hawks remain atop the early-season Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) team standings. Kee opened the week with an 81-31 home drubbing of Clayton Ridge Tuesday, December 5 before taking on one of the UIC’s two other unbeaten squads in a road game at North Fayette Valley Friday, December 8, where those two 4-0 overall teams waged a war against one another that came down to the final seconds before the Hawks secured the 55-51 triumph to stay a game ahead of also-unbeaten South Winneshiek’s 3-0 UIC record thus far.

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams hosted their first home dual match of the 2023-2024 season, welcoming Decorah to its refurbished home at Grumpy’s Lanes in Waukon Friday, December 1. The bowling Indians ended up being gracious hosts to the visiting Vikings, allowing Decorah to take home a pair of victories as the boys fell by a 2655-2377 final result and the Lady Indians had an early head-to-head competition lead snatched away in the Baker round of competition for a loss by just seven pins, 2230-2223.

The bowling Indians are next scheduled to host North Iowa this Friday, December 8. They will then travel to Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, December 15 to wrap up the pre-holiday portion of their season schedule.

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The Kee boys basketball team got its 2023-2024 campaign off to a busy start, playing three games in a span of four days this past week and putting all three of those game in the win column at differing degrees of difficulty. The Hawks opened the season with a 64-25 home romp over Central Elkader Tuesday, November 28 before bringing home a 56-48 win from De Soto, WI Thursday, November 30. Kee wrapped up the week holding on for a 59-57 triumph at the home of last season’s undefeated Upper Iowa Conference champion, MFL/MarMac, in thrilling fashion Friday, December 1.

The Hawks were next scheduled to host Clayton Ridge Tuesday, December 5 before playing at North Fayette Valley Friday, December 8. They will then host Postville Tuesday, December 12 before playing back-to-back dates to end next week, playing at South Winneshiek Friday, December 15 and then taking on Alburnett at of the UIU Shootout hosted by Upper Iowa University in Fayette Saturday, December 16.

For its 2023-2024 campaign, the Waukon boys basketball team will look to benefit from the return of six players with varsity letterwinning experience from a season ago. Those half dozen veterans are coming back from a squad that posted a 3-18 season record last winter and graduated just a pair of seniors from its roster.

Those six returning letterwinners will be headlined by four seniors, including Jacob Courtney, Kole McCormick, Jack O’Neill and Mason Wasson. Junior Jaxon Brinkman and sophomore Colton O’Neill help complete that list of experienced veterans who will set the pace for this season’s squad that has 23 young men currently in consideration in this season’s early-going.

The Waukon girls wrestling team pulled double duty this past week, wrestling in both a dual event and a weekend tournament against some considerable competition. The Lady Indians opened their dual meet schedule with a 39-34 loss at home to Crestwood Tuesday, November 28 before competing in the large, two-day Dan Gable Donnybrook Tournament held in Coralville Thursday and Friday, November 30 and December 1. The mat Tribe finished 23rd in the tournament’s 43-team scoring field made up of squads from all over the Midwest, with seniors Mia Kurth and Kloe Hemmersbach each wrestling to a team-best fifth-place individual finish at 105 and 190 pounds, respectively.

The Waukon boys wrestling team will field one of its largest squads in recent years, as 44 young men have reported for early-season work-outs as the 2023-2024 season gets underway. Within that larger squad lies another considerable number of returning matmen who bring back enough varsity letterwinning experience to nearly fill an entire line-up, as 14 varsity veterans come back from last winter to provide leadership for a mix of wrestling experience and skill levels making up this season’s squad.

“We have 44 boys out this season,” Waukon wrestling head coach Mason Berns said. “An excellent number with many fun dynamics. It’s exciting to see young men discover the positives wrestling has to offer to a growing young person. I have wrestlers that this is their first-ever season and wrestlers that have wrestled since they were able to crawl. Watching them take care of each other, simply put, is awesome.”

The Kee boys basketball team will be benefiting from the return of nearly every one of its players from a squad last winter that played to a 7-15 season record and had just one senior on its roster. That large returning squad includes seven varsity letterwinners from last season that include a senior class of just two players this season.

That senior pair includes Kaleb Drape and Andrew Kolsrud, and those two most veteran upperclassmen are joined by five juniors, three of whom broke on to the varsity scene two seasons ago already as freshmen. Jordan Cota, Brayden Darling, Dalton Mudderman, Jarod Reams and Karsen Strong round out this season’s list of returning varsity veterans.

The 2023-2024 Waukon girls basketball season will feature a mix of familiarity and some new faces in new places as a collection of players from all four high school grade levels will make up this season’s varsity squad for first-year Indian head coach John O’Neill. Within the 14 players donning a varsity uniform for the bucket Tribe this winter will be five seniors, three juniors, five sophomores and one freshman.

The Waukon girls wrestling team got its 2023 season underway at a large tournament hosted by Decorah High School Saturday, November 18, making some good first impressions for this initial competition of the new season. Eleven different young ladies took to the mat for the Indian grapplers in eight of the tournament’s 14 weight classes, with five of those mat ladies finishing in the top six placewinnings of their respective weight classes to rack up 92 team points and place the mat Tribe sixth in the final 16-team standings.

The Indian mat ladies will return to the mat following the Thanksgiving holiday, hosting Crestwood Tuesday, November 28 before competing in the Coralville Tournament Thursday and Friday, November 30 and December 1. They will then host Waverly-Shell Rock in a girl/boy double-dual format Thursday, December 7 before competing in the Luther Tournament in Decorah Friday, December 8.