Sports

The improvement the Waukon volleyball team has made late in this season has continued to show itself in the net Tribe’s start to postseason tournament play. Although still showing obvious improvement traveling down that postseason road, that road and any chance to show further improvement this season came to a close in the Indians’ second-round Class 3A Region 8 match-up Tuesday, October 23 at 13th-rated New Hampton.

Brennan and Meyer run to All-State finishes among Class 1A’s top-15 elite

The Kee girls cross country team returned to the scene of its greatest accomplishment from last season, looking to make another mark among the Class 1A elite at this season’s Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet held at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge Saturday, October 27. Returning with four of their top five scored runners from last season’s third-place team finish, the Lady Hawks were poised to do just that and ended up just shy of equaling last season’s accomplishment, finishing fourth in this season’s field of Class 1A’s 15 best teams by a mere three points behind last season’s Class 1A champion, Hudson.

For the second consecutive season, the Waukon girls cross country team wrapped up its season where all high school cross country teams would love to be, the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet held at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge Saturday, October 27. Competing for the second consecutive season and just the second time at the season grand finale since Iowa high school girls switched to the 5K cross country distance, the Indians had the ironic experience of scoring fewer team points at this season’s State Meet but ultimately finishing two spots further back in the final team standings, the distance Tribe ultimately placing 11th in the 15-team Class 2A field after scoring 238 team points, four fewer than last season’s total of 242 points that placed the Lady Indians ninth overall.

The Waukon football team will begin defense of its first-ever football State Championship this Friday, October 26 by opening the Class 2A State Play-Offs with a home game against Union of La Porte City in a game beginning at 7 p.m. The Knights hold a 6-3 record and come out of a three-way tie in Class 2A District 7 after having their own undefeated district season denied by a 26-16 loss to West Marshall this past Friday. The Knights, West Marshall and Benton each ended up with a single district loss, with Benton having defeated West Marshall and Union having defeated Benton earlier in the season. That first-round match-up is part of Class 2A’s Bracket C in this season’s new initial four-bracket play-off system in each class.

The Waukon girls cross country team has earned a return trip to the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet to be run at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course located about seven miles north of Fort Dodge this Saturday, October 27. The State Meet consists of four classes of competition, beginning at 11 a.m. with the Class 4A girls race and proceeding with the Class 4A boys at 11:30 and about every half hour after that with respective girls and boys races for each class. The Waukon girls are scheduled to compete at 1 p.m. and will be looking to improve on their ninth-place team finish from last season’s Class 2A State Meet. The Indians return five of their seven competitors from last season’s State Meet team. They will be occupying Box 17 on the 22-box starting grid. The team and individual awards ceremony for Class 2A is slated to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m.

The Kee girls cross country team has earned a return trip to the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet to be run at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course located about seven miles north of Fort Dodge this Saturday, October 27. The State Meet consists of four classes of competition, beginning at 11 a.m. with the Class 4A girls race and proceeding with the Class 4A boys at 11:30 and about every half hour after that with respective girls and boys races for each class. The Kee girls are scheduled to compete at 2 p.m. in their Class 1A race and will be looking to further advance on their third-place finish earned at last fall’s State Meet. The Hawks return four of their five scored runners from last season’s trophy-winning performance. They will start in Box 16 of the 22-box starting grid. Team and individual awards for Class 1A are slated to begin at approximately 3 p.m.

In a race featuring more teams ranked in the top 15 than any other Class 2A State Qualifying field, the Waukon girls cross country team proved they belonged among this season’s elite squads by earning advancement to the season grand finale Class 2A State Meet for the second straight year.

Competing in a field that featured four teams rated among Class 1A’s top 15 teams, including three in the latest top-five rankings, the Kee girls cross country team topped all that high regard to emerge as the team champion at its Class 1A State Qualifying Meet hosted by Cedar Rapids Kennedy Thursday, October 18.

Undoubtedly fueling the fourth-rated Lady Hawks’ title run was a runner-up finish at their own Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet to a fifth-rated South Winneshiek squad that denied a Kee repeat UIC championship just a week earlier, an inspiration that Kee cross country coach Pat Wagner feels not only motivated his girls to not let that happen again at this next level but also catapulted his crew past a third-rated Denver team by a double-digit final margin of Kee’s 68 points to 77 for Denver.

Already knowing they had wrapped up a fifth State Play-Off berth since beginning play in the Class 2A field in 2012, the Waukon football team still had a great deal to play for when it hosted North Fayette Valley in the final game of the 2018 regular season and Class 2A District 4 play Friday, October 19. Regardless of the game’s final result, the Indians were going to have at least a share of this season’s district championship and guaranteed play-off qualification, but they also knew a win would give the program its first outright district championship and undefeated league mark since joining the Class 2A ranks, as well as the hosting of at least their first play-off game.

It might be said that the Kee football team saved its best for last, as the grid Hawks’ final game of the season looked to be an upset of Eight-Player top 10-rated Midland at home Friday, October 19. Unfortunately, the visiting Eagles also saved their best for last, as they scored a final touchdown with just 23 seconds left to play to avoid the upset loss, instead stealing a 46-44 victory away from the Hawks.