Sports

The Kee boys basketball team posted just a single win in another busy week of three games this past week, falling early in the week at home before splitting a pair of away games with scoring totals on each end of the spectrum. The Hawks began the week with a 45-64 home loss in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play to Postville Tuesday, December 5 before back-to-back days of competition away from home yielded a 77-39 win at West Central Friday, December 8 followed by a 14-60 loss to Leroy-Ostrander out of Minnesota in an Iowa-Minnesota Border Battle match-up hosted by Luther College in Decorah Saturday, December 9.

The Waukon girls basketball team split its pair of games this past week played on back-to-back nights, falling to another strong non-conference opponent but remaining undefeated in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play. The Indians fell at home to Caledonia, MN Thursday, December 7 by a 36-57 final result but bounced back in record-setting fashion to dominate Oelwein, 58-11, in a Friday, December 8 road game that allowed the fewest points by an opponent in program history, rewriting the previous record of 14 points last allowed during the 2002-2003 season.

The Waukon boys basketball continued its early-season roll with another pair of sizable victories this past week, both of them at home. The Indians opened this past week with a recent team-scoring high of 91 points in a 91-44 home beat-down of Sumner-Fredericksburg Monday, December 4 before opening Northeast Iowa Conference play with a 65-45 home victory over Oelwein Friday, December 8 to post a 3-0 start to this season.

The Waukon bowling team turned in a tough split as the Indians of the alleys hosted North Iowa High School out of Buffalo Center for their first home match of their 2017-2018 season schedule. The Waukon boys team scored its second consecutive victory of the young season, bowling a best-ever team total for a 2609-2271 win, while the Waukon girls team fell by a 1738-1975 final.

The Indians are scheduled to wrap up the 2017 portion of their schedule this Friday, December 15 when they host Decorah. After the holiday break, the bowling Tribe will return to action Friday, January 5 against North Fayette Valley in West Union.

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The Waukon Wellness Center hosted its fourth annual “Turkey Trot” 5K/8K Run and Walk Thanksgiving morning, November 23. Approximately 73 participants took part in the event, with first-place finishers in five of the seven age categories receiving a frozen turkey and second-place finishers taking home a frozen chicken to commemorate their effort. Gold, silver and bronze medals were also distributed to the respective placewinners in each division, and youth classes received a goodie bag and a medal. The top entries in each age division at the annual event are pictured above and listed as follows:

The Waukon girls basketball team got itself in the win column for the first time this season, and did so in sweeping fashion with victories in back-to-back weekend contests. The Indians opened their Northeast Iowa Conference season with a 48-32 win at home over New Hampton Friday, December 1 and followed that victory with a second one the very next day, a 48-24 handling of Hudson in the Upper Iowa University Showdown held in the Upper Iowa University gymnasium in Fayette Saturday, December 2.

Waukon is scheduled to play another back-to-back pair this week, hosting Caledonia, MN Thursday, December 7 before playing at Oelwein Friday, December 8. The Lady Indians will then face both of last season’s Northeast Iowa Conference co-champions next week, hosting Class 3A second-rated Crestwood Tuesday, December 12 before playing at Waverly-Shell Rock in a rare girl-boy doubleheader for the Indians Friday, December 15.

The 2017-2018 Waukon boys basketball season will feature a team with half of its roster listed as returning letterwinners from a 6-15 season last winter. An even greater portion of this season’s early roster of 15 players also recently made school history by playing to Waukon High School’s first-ever state football championship, a gridiron team also under the offensive guidance of Waukon boys basketball coach Jed Hemann, who sees much more of the sweet side of whatever bittersweet aspects stem from a football season extending into the start of the basketball season.

The Waukon wrestling team opened its 2017-2018 season with an extremely busy week of what amounted to six dual meets in a three-night span followed by a weekend tournament. The mat Tribe posted dual victories of 33-30 over Oelwein and 51-22 over Postville, but fell to Nashua-Plainfield, 27-54, at a quadrangular kick-off to the season Tuesday, November 28 at Oelwein, and then downed Riceville, 48-24, and Clayton Ridge, 64-6, before also falling to South Winneshiek, 48-30, in a similar quadrangular format Thursday, November 30 at home. The Indians wrapped up their busy initial week with a sixth-place finish at the annual Chris Davis Tournament hosted by Wapsie Valley High School Saturday, December 2, where four Indian matmen finished within the top three of their respective weight bracket, including an individual championship won by senior Tristan Hansmeier at 170 pounds as he continued the undefeated start to his final high school wrestling season.

The Kee boys basketball team will be looking to build from the ground up for the 2017-2018 campaign. Even though the Hawks have five letterwinners returning from last season’s 4-17 campaign, none of those returning veterans were among last winter’s top-six scorers or top-seven rebounders, with graduation taking away nearly three-fourths of Kee’s scoring and rebounding from last season.

“We lost a lot of seniors, including 1,000 point (career) scorer Danny Brennan, so it will be interesting to see how this team comes along,” Kee boys basketball coach Patrick Sullivan said. “We also lost a lot of overall height in our line-up, so we’re hoping to make up for it in hustle.”

The Waukon wrestling team will be able to fill about half its line-up with varsity experience for its 2017-2018 campaign and will have a new face at the helm of the program to try and piece this season’s line-up together. The Indian mat squad will feature six varsity letterwinners returning this season in its overall make-up of just 20 wrestlers taking to the mat for first-year head coach Mason Berns.