Sports

Waukon wrestling 145-pound senior Miles Hansmeier works to control fellow senior Brody Olson of Stewartville High School out of Minnesota in their middleweight bout at the 18th annual Iowa-Minnesota All-Star Border Battle dual meet held Friday, March 8 at Crestwood High School in Cresco. Hansmeier pulled out a 7-6 victory in the match, but the squad of top senior wrestlers from southeast Minnesota edged their mat counterparts from northeast Iowa in the All-Star event by a 42-39 final team result. Olson also wrestled another match in the dual, pinning North Fayette Valley senior Gunner Rodgers in 3:58 to help his Minnesota squad to the team victory. The event is sponsored by the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame housed in Cresco. The dual meet win by the Minnesota squad evens up the interstate mat series at nine wins for each team. Photo courtesy of Nate Troy, Cresco Times-Plain Dealer.
 

Waukon High School girls basketball senior Maddie Ahlstrom has been selected as one of 63 Iowa high school senior girls basketball players to be honored as a member of the 2019 Iowa Girls Coaches Association (IGCA) Academic All-State Girls Basketball Team, along with fellow senior teammate Aubree Cota. Selection to that team requires a senior varsity contributor to post a minimum ACT score of 27 in addition to a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.75. Having also been named Academic All-State by the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA), Ahlstrom received even further All-State honors, being named to the IGCA Class 3A All-State Second Team and also to the Class 3A All-State Third Team by the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association. Ahlstrom was also named to the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Class 3A Northeast All-District Team, as well as the IBCA Class 3A Region 4 All-Region Team.

Defeats Crestwood, 48-37, falls to runner-up North Polk, 65-49; Headington chosen All-Tournament

The old saying goes that all good things must come to an end, but for the Waukon girls basketball team that good thing came to an end at a great place where 60 of this season’s other 63 Class 3A teams would love to have been. Playing their way to the State Tournament for the first time since the program’s Class 3A State Runner-Up finish to cap off the 2009-2010 season, the basketball Lady Indians played their way to Class 3A’s “final four” teams at this season’s grand finale held at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines February 25-March 2, splitting the two games they were able to play before bowing out in the semifinal round of the Class 3A eight-team bracket.

Allamakee Community School District resident Nancy Reiser (far right in photo above) waves to the Waukon fan base as she was announced as Waukon High School’s representative for the Sportsmanship Award presented by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and the Iowa Farm Bureau prior to the start of the Waukon girls basketball team’s first-round Class 3A State Tournament game against fellow Northeast Iowa Conference squad Crestwood Monday, February 25 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Prior to the start of each first-round game at the Iowa High School Girls State Basketball Tournament, a fan supporting each participating team is honored after being nominated by their respective school. Along with each honored fan receiving a certificate, each represented high school also receives a $250 award to its scholarship fund in the name of the honored fan.

Waukon wrestling 145-pound senior Miles Hansmeier will be among the top senior wrestlers from northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota who will face off in the 18th annual Iowa-Minnesota All-Star Border Battle dual meet at 7 p.m. this Friday, March 8 at Crestwood High School in Cresco. The event is sponsored by the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame housed in Cresco and tickets for the event will be sold at the door at Crestwood High School.

Dennis Meirick, president of the hosting Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame, notes that wrestlers from Crestwood, New Hampton, South Winneshiek, MFL/MarMac, Riceville, North Fayette Valley and Wapsie Valley will also wrestle for the Iowa squad against some of the state of Minnesota’s top matmen from the southeast portion of the state. The Iowa squad won last year’s Border Battle to take a 9-8 lead in the interstate mat series.

Waukon High School girls basketball senior Maddie Ahlstrom has been selected as one of 22 Iowa high school senior girls basketball players to be honored as a member of the 2019 Iowa Basketball Coaches Association Academic All-State Girls Basketball Team. That team was selected out of 85 applicants and its members have recorded a combined ACT composite score of 29.8 and a grade point average of 4.0, along with a per game scoring average of 12.5 points. That Academic All-State Team will be recognized during halftime of the Class 1A State Tournament semifinal game to be played at 3:15 p.m. Friday, March 1 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The ninth-rated Waukon girls basketball team (18-3) opened its Class 3A State Tournament in victorious fashion, outlasting seventh-rated Crestwood (15-5), 48-37, in the opening round of the season grand finale Monday, February 25 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The Indians used a strong defensive effort that forced nearly the same number of turnovers (25) as the Cadets had in total shot attempts (29).

That first-round win advances the basketball Tribe to a Thursday, February 28 semifinals contest at 1:30 p.m. against top-rated and top-seeded North Polk (21-2), who defeated unrated and eighth-seeded Estherville-Lincoln Central (14-10) by a 59-47 result in other Monday night action. That Estherville-Lincoln Central team is coached by 1973 Waukon High School graduate Don Martindale, who took over the Lady Midgets’ program last year.

The Waukon Park & Recreation Youth Soccer Program is for boys and girls in Kindergarten through sixth grade. Basic fundamentals of soccer will be taught along with team participation.

Teams will be grouped together as follows: Kindergarten is alone, first and second graders will be together, third and fourth graders will be together, and fifth and sixth graders will be together. Different size fields and balls will be used to accommodate the lower ages and skill levels. All players must wear shin guards and they must be covered by socks or pants. Cleats are optional.

The games will be played Saturday mornings starting April 13 and will run for five weeks. There will not be games April 20 due to Easter weekend. The dates will be as follows: April 13, April 27, May 4, May 11 and May 18. The make-up date will be Tuesday, May 21, if needed.

After back-to-back nights of postponement, the Waukon boys basketball team had its 2018-2019 campaign brought to a close in the opening round of Class 2A District 4 Tournament play Wednesday, February 13. Originally scheduled for a Monday, February 11 date, winter weather moved the game to Tuesday, February 12 and then again to its final Wednesday date, but the game proved to be well worth the wait as the Indians battled their hosts, the New Hampton Chickasaws, neck-and-neck the entire game before ending up on the short end of a 78-73 final result to have their 2018-2019 season brought to completion.

Having to wait a couple days to finally get its postseason underway due to winter weather delays, the Kee boys basketball team had its tournament trail cut short “under the Stars” Wednesday, February 13, as the Hawks fell to the Starmont Stars by a 56-50 final result in their Class 1A District 5 Tournament game played at MFL/MarMac High School in Monona. The game had been postponed from its originally scheduled Monday, February 11 date not just once, but twice, and that delay may have been what fueled Starmont junior guard Chris Baumgartner, as he erupted for a career-high 28 points to account for half the production of his 2-19 Stars’ team in the ballgame.