Sports

The Kee football team made one of its longer road trips Friday, August 31 when the Hawks traveled to Rockford for their final non-district game of the 2018 season. The senior-led host Warriors had racked up a 74-18 victory in their first game of this season on the strength of a high-powered running game, and that trend proved to continue as the Hawks were dealt a 70-14 defeat.

That Rockford ground game chewed up 415 yards against the Hawk defense, with all but two of the Warriors’ nine touchdowns coming on the ground. The Rockford senior tandem of Kaden Lyman and Jacob Staudt accounted for 141 and 273 yards, respectively, ending up with averages of 17.6 and 30.3 yards per carry in the contest, with Staudt racking up five touchdowns along the way.

After looking far and wide for its first competition of the season following weather cancellations, the Waukon boys cross country team ended up competing just a short distance away from home to open its 2018 season at the MFL/MarMac Invitational with a third-place team finish. The Indians first had their originally scheduled Tuesday, August 28 Oelwein Invitational canceled due to rainy weather, and then also had a schedule-added Charles City meet Thursday, August 30 canceled due to remnants of that rainy weather, before ultimately ending up competing at the Tri-City Golf Club near Luana Thursday, August 30.

The Indians got a pair of top-five individual efforts and ultimately had all their five scored runners finish in the top 25 individuals of the 55-runner varsity field. That effort was good enough for third place in the nine-team varsity field, just two points behind Class 1A fourth-rated South Winneshiek.

It was a bit of a challenge for the Waukon girls cross country team to gets its first competition of the season this past week, but once they did the Lady Indians made the most of it, sweeping the MFL/MarMac Invitational at both the varsity and junior varsity levels with some domination of the top-10 individual placewinnings. The distance Tribe first had its originally scheduled Tuesday, August 28 Oelwein Invitational canceled due to rainy weather, and then also had a schedule-added Charles City meet Thursday, August 30 canceled due to remnants of that rainy weather, before ultimately ending up just about 20 minutes down the road to top all teams at the Tri-City Golf Club near Luana Thursday, August 30.

The Waukon football team put forth a much more methodical effort in its home season opener Friday, August 31, finishing on top of a 22-7 final result against fellow Northeast Iowa Conference school Crestwood for the Tribe’s first win of the season. Keeping on its three-touchdown scoring pace established in last week’s season-opening loss, the grid Tribe toiled out three longer, more sustained drives to find paydirt this week, coupling that result with a shut-out defensive effort for all but the first three minutes of the third quarter.

That defensive effort limited each phase of Crestwood’s attack to just over 100 yards, with 105 yards rushing and 104 through the air. The Indians managed a bit more success in each of what was also a nearly balanced attack of 129 rushing yards and 140 more passing.

The 2018 football season is underway and with it comes the return of The Standard’s Halfback Harry contest. The opening week of the contest proved to be somewhat of a logjam in all competitions.

Three entries tied in each of the two aspects of the contest, including a trio that missed just two of this week’s 20 games. Wayne Kreitzer of Cresco, Dana Fink of Perry and Mark Goeke of Riceville were locked in that initial battle, requiring the total points scored by winning teams tie-breaker to be implemented. This week’s 20 winning teams racked up 738 total points, giving Kreitzer the first-week nod with his choice of 732 points, with Fink’s guess of 767 points and Goeke’s choice of 680 each being further off.

Returning all but one of its top seven runners from an overall young squad that came up just a couple places shy of continuing its most recent streak of State Meet qualification last season, the Waukon boys cross country team will work toward its ultimate goal of competing in that season grand finale once again with a strong returning foundation in 2018. Six of the distance Tribe’s top seven runners, including last season’s top four individuals, will be working to make a return trip to Fort Dodge this fall.

“Returning six of our top seven runners from last year’s team, as well as the majority of the guys coming into the season with at least one year of cross country under their belt, if not more,” Waukon boys cross country coach Tara Stein listed as the strength’s of this season’s team. “I have been pleased with our numbers and how hard the boys have been pushing themselves in practice.”

The 2018 volleyball season will mark the beginning of the impact felt by graduation of the most decorated and historic senior class in the history of Kee girls athletics. Although just three seniors were lost from last season’s net squad that pieced together one of the most successful season’s in Kee volleyball history, the fact that trio took with it the top statistical numbers in nearly every category from last fall’s 21-15 campaign, including the top three totals in many categories, will leave some considerable shoes to fill for the 2018 Lady Hawks.

Starting the season with a squad working to fill the loss of a half dozen All-District graduated seniors, the Kee football team opened its 2018 campaign with an even more depleted squad with just three players who played considerable starting roles in last season’s Hawk varsity grid effort due to some early-season overcomings. Couple that with a season-opening opponent, Riceville, that had played to State Play-Off qualification last season and owns a three-game winning streak over the Hawks, and the end result looks something like the 26-0 loss Kee was dealt at home by the visiting Wildcats Friday, August 24, Riceville limiting the Hawks to just 114 total yards of offense and eventually racking up 302 yards of its own, 295 of those yards coming on the ground.

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The Kee girls and boys cross country program looks to benefit from the return of all but one of last season’s competitors from each squad. Just one senior was lost to graduation this past spring, taking the multi-year experience of Nicki Wood with it, but the return of five other varsity letterwinners from a team effort of historic proportions last season still gives the Kee girls team just cause for continued optimism. Likewise, the return of all but one of last season’s varsity frontrunners for the Kee boys squad looks to have a similar impact on moving forward.

The ultimate history of a first-ever State Championship in program history won last season puts the Waukon football team in a similar first-ever position of having the opportunity to build on that ultimate success this season. That opportunity to build on past success will also offer the opportunity for an abundance of others to do the building, as graduation this past spring took a class of 16 seniors who filled a total of 18 of 22 starting positions from last season’s Class 2A State Championship squad.