Sports

The Waukon volleyball team wrapped up its regular season by solidifying sixth-place finishes in both its Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) regular season and at the NEIC Tournament this past week, completing both with 1-5 records against NEIC foes for sixth-place finishes in league play. That regular season effort was completed by a three-set sweep at home suffered at the hands of Charles City Tuesday, October 15, with the net Tribe then running through its NEIC opponents again all in one day at the NEIC Tournament hosted by New Hampton Saturday, October 19 to again defeat just one those six teams - the same winless Oelwein team the Indians beat during the regular season.

Haley Meyer and Chris Wagner each run to UIC Runner-Up honors; All five scored girls are All-UIC

The Kee cross country teams wrapped up their 2019 regular season schedule with the annual Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet hosted by Clayton Ridge Thursday, October 17 in Guttenberg. Both the Hawks’ girls and boys teams boasted the UIC individual runner-up in their respective races, with the Kee girls landing all five of their scored runners within the All-Conference top 15 in their respective races to return to the top of the team summit as this year’s UIC team champions.

In its only competition scheduled for the week, the Waukon volleyball team hosted fellow Northeast Iowa Conference squad Crestwood in its annual “Think Pink” Night to raise awareness of October being designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With both teams adorned in pink jerseys for the night, it was the Indians who ended up on the short end of a black-and-blue battle with the visiting Cadets, falling in straight sets by narrow scores of 22-25, 23-25 and 17-25.

The Kee volleyball team continued its trend of Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) match splits for another week, adding another UIC victory to its season record before having that fate reversed in a busy week of competition. The Lady Hawks first picked up that UIC win in four sets at Postville Tuesday, October 8 before falling at home to MFL/MarMac Thursday, October 10 in three sets. The Kee netters then traveled to Riceville Saturday, October 12 for their final weekend tournament of the season, winning three of four matches on the day to sweep their way into the championship bracket round of play before having their tournament day ended in the opening round of that bracket round.

The Friday, October 11 Class 2A District 4 match-up at Waterloo between the Waukon Indians and Waterloo Columbus Sailors held “special” meaning within its defense-dominated result.

It was a late-season match-up between two undefeated and top-five ranked teams that held considerable meaning in the final District 4 standings and, thus, automatic qualification for the Class 2A State Play-Offs. But it was special teams that proved to hold the most meaning in finally getting both teams on the scoreboard in what turned out to be a 20-7 Indian victory that put them in the driver’s seat for the District 4 season championship and automatic play-off qualification as the district’s lone remaining undefeated team.

For the second consecutive week, the Kee football team was matched up against an undefeated and top-10 ranked opponent on the road, making the three-hour trip to Preston Friday, October 11 to take on an Easton Valley squad that currently shares the Eight-Player District 3 unblemished lead with Kee’s opponent from the previous week, Turkey Valley. Also for the second consecutive week, unfortunately, a valiant early effort for the Hawks was overshadowed and overtaken by a high-powered Easton Valley offense that was further helped along by five Kee turnovers in ballooning just a 14-6 Kee early deficit into an eventual 67-14 Hawk defeat.

The Hawks will next wrap up the home portion of their schedule for this 2019 season, hosting a Central Elkader team that is still in search of its first victory of the season this Friday, October 18. The Warriors come off a 51-26 home loss to Central City this past Friday in what turned out to be its closest final margin so far this season.

It was a happy Homecoming for the Waukon football team Friday, October 4 as the top-rated Indian grid squad had little trouble with a visiting Oelwein Husky team still in search of its first Class 2A District 3 win in bringing a 2-3 season record to Waukon’s Homecoming venue and leaving with a 55-14 defeat.

The Huskies did boast Class 2A’s leading rusher coming into the game in junior Gage Voshell, who came into the contest averaging results of 28 carries, 176 yards and two touchdowns per game, but the Indian defense stifled the Oelwein workhorse to just 35 yards on 12 carries without a touchdown, while the Tribe bolted to a 42-0 headstart before trading late touchdowns between their reserve players.

The Waukon volleyball team had a busy book-end to a very challenging week this past week, half of this week’s opponents being ranked within the top 15 of their respective classes in five total matches. The initial part of that book-end was the gauntlet of facing the top two teams from the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC), the NEIC undefeated pair of Class 3A sixth-rated New Hampton and Class 4A sixth-rated Waverly-Shell Rock, on back-to-back nights, the Tribe falling to both in three sets each, 20-25, 13-25 and 11-25 at the home of the Chickasaws Monday, September 30 and then at home to the visiting Go-Hawks Tuesday, October 1 by scores of 8-25, 16-25 and 14-25.

The Kee volleyball team was able to secure its first win in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play this past week in splitting a pair of UIC matches. The Lady Hawks first fell at home to Clayton Ridge Tuesday, October 1 in four sets, 25-18, 20-25, 13-25 and 21-25, before battling through a five-set marathon at South Winneshiek Thursday, October 3 to clinch their first Upper Iowa Conference win of the season.

Holding a 3-16 season record, 1-4 in Upper Iowa Conference play at this point in the season, the Hawks were next scheduled to play at Postville Tuesday, October 8 before hosting MFL/MarMac Thursday, October 10 and then playing in the Riceville Tournament Saturday, October 12. The Kee girls will then wrap up their regular season dual match schedule by hosting Turkey Valley Monday, October 14.

After coming off its first victory of the season last Friday, the Kee football team faced the unenviable task of traveling to the home of an undefeated Turkey Valley team ranked as high as second in some Eight-Player polls Friday, October 4. The highly-regarded Trojans had averaged nearly 58 points a game in playing to a 5-0 start to this season, and although the Hawks battled hard early on, their Turkey Valley hosts used some big plays and some Kee misfortune to break open the game and maintain their scoring average in dealing the Hawks a 60-0 defeat.