Sports

The Waukon girls basketball team split its pair of contests this past week, both of them being played within the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) and ending up with nearly identical point totals, just not necessarily both in the Lady Indians’ favor. The bucket Tribe began its week of competition suffering a 50-33 loss at MFL/MarMac Tuesday, December 2 but bounced back convincingly by handling New Hampton at home by a 53-33 final result to currently hold a 3-2 overall record in this early season, including a mark of 2-1 in UIC play.

The Waukon girls were next scheduled to play at Crestwood Tuesday, December 9 and host North Fayette Valley Friday, December 12. A Tuesday, December 16 home game vs. Clayton Ridge will be followed by back-to-back nights of competition prior to the holiday break, including a Thursday, December 18 home contest against Decorah followed by a Friday, December 19 road  battle at West Central.

The Waukon girls wrestling team had a busy four-day stretch this past week that started with dual matches against some of the smaller teams the Lady Indians are likely to face this season and ended with its biggest tournament of the season. The mat Tribe rolled through those first two dual matches of its 2025-2026 campaign with relative ease, posting wins of 66-6 over Postville and 53-15 over MFL/MarMac Tuesday, December 2 before taking part in the large, two-day Dan Gable Donnybrook in Coralville, finishing 33rd as a team in the 46-team tournament field from throughout the Midwest, with three Indians claiming finishes within the top-12 of their weight class brackets of at least 32 wrestlers.

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The Kee boys basketball team got its 2025-2026 season off to an undefeated start, recording two wins on somewhat differing ends of the spectrum for a 2-0 beginning to this winter. The Hawks opened their season with a 71-69 home triumph over Turkey Valley that went right down to the wire Tuesday, December 2 but then took much greater control of their next contest to bring home a 58-41 victory from Postville Friday, December 5.

The Hawks were next scheduled to host Central Elkader Tuesday, December 9 before playing at Clayton Ridge Friday, December 12. They will then wrap up their pre-holiday schedule with a busy week of hosting De Soto, WI Monday, December 15, playing at North Fayette Valley Tuesday, December 16 and hosting Crestwood Friday, December 19.

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The 2025-2026 Waukon boys wrestling team will be fielding a team of 32 young men this winter, with more than half of this season’s squad returning with varsity letterwinning experience from last year’s campaign that featured a 10-5 season record. This season’s collection of 18 letterwinning returnees includes equal totals of wrestlers from each returning grade level and will cover nearly every single weight class.

“We return many varsity letterwinners from last season who proved themselves to be successful,” Waukon boys wrestling head coach Caleb Ferring shared. “More importantly, we put in great off-season work as a team to grow as wrestlers and athletes. Many of our guys have been putting in work through other sports, in the weight room, and through off-season wrestling.”

The 2025-2026 Waukon boys basketball team will return just enough varsity letterwinners from past seasons to field a starting line-up this season, as five players return to the court this winter with enough experience to have earned a varsity letter during prior campaigns and will lead this season’s team of 17 players at the varsity level. A majority of those returning veterans come back from a squad that compiled a 10-13 overall record last season that included a 3-5 mark that placed the bucket Tribe in third place in the last-ever Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings.

The Kee boys basketball team will be looking to try and continue to build on its first streak of consecutive winning seasons in more than a dozen years when the Hawks hit the hardcourt for their 2025-2026 campaign. Four returning letterwinners that include just one returning starter from last season’s 13-10 campaign will be looking to add a third consecutive winning season to Kee’s hardcourt efforts that would equal the most recent similar such streak that took place from 2009-2012.

Those four letterwinners headlining this group’s roster of 17 players include a pair each of seniors, Sam Janzen and Justin Wagner, and juniors, Trey Cota and Tanner Troendle. Trey Cota is the lone starter in that returning veteran list, as he complemented a senior-laden starting line-up that was part of a most veteran class that accounted for nearly half of the entire make-up of last season’s team.

The Waukon girls basketball team pulled double duty on back-to-back nights prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, earning a split in those two contests on the road that came both in and out of Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play. The Lady Indians suffered a non-conference loss at Jesup Monday, November 24 by a 46-38 final result before bouncing back the very next night to play their very first game in Upper Iowa Conference play, coming away with a 29-18 win at South Winneshiek Tuesday, November 25.

Despite graduating more than half of its starting line-up from last season’s squad that finished 15-8 overall, the 2025-2026 Waukon girls basketball team will still return plenty of varsity letterwinning experience for this winter’s campaign. That returning experience will include nearly enough girls to formulate a starting line-up, as four young ladies come back as veteran players this season to lead a squad of 20 overall members of the high school program.

Those four include a pair each of seniors and juniors, and they cover every aspect on the floor with a pair of post players, a forward and a guard. The senior pair of guard Elle Wilkins and post player Willa Troendle will be further complemented by the junior tandem of post player Blythe Bucknell and forward Bryiah Stewart.

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams are coming from different directions in their seasons last winter and will have some different levels of returning experience in leading their respective 2025-2026 lane campaigns. Guiding whatever level of leadership is returning for this winter’s season will be an individual bringing his own mix of experience, as Jesse Peterson will fully take the head coaching reins of the program this season after previously assisting the bowling Tribe and serving as a co-head coach last year.

“This season is my 32nd year of bowling in adult leagues,” Peterson offered in regard to his own bowling experience. “I have attended a few bowling coaching clinics as well as talked with a couple college coaches, when my daughter (2021 Waukon High School graduate Taylor Peterson) bowled at Coe College.”

The 2025-2026 Kee girls basketball season has been looked to with great anticipation since the Lady Hawk team with just one senior on its roster and no seniors in its starting line-up took its efforts last winter to the brink of every team’s ultimate destination. Having its 2024-2025 campaign ended in the Class 1A regional finals - just one win away from its first State Tournament berth in seven years, the hardcourt Hawks will be returning six varsity letterwinners from that high-achieving squad, including all five of its starters in an overall larger team this season of 14 players in the freshman through senior classes.