Sports

The Kee baseball team book-ended its initial week of the 2021 season with results on each end of the win-loss spectrum, also having a Thursday, May 27 home doubleheader with MFL/MarMac postponed by rainy weather to a new June 11 date. On either side of that rescheduling, the Hawks got their season underway with a doubleheader loss at Decorah Tuesday, May 25 by scores of 8-4 and 11-1 in five innings before wrapping up the week with a pair of wins at home in their annual Shooky Fink Tournament Saturday, May 29, including a 6-0 victory over Northwood-Kensett followed by a 5-4 triumph over Davenport West.

Senior slinger also finishes sixth in discus, Krambeer medals in long jump debut

For the Waukon boys track team, the 2021 Iowa High School State Meet at Drake Stadium in Des Moines was a learning and growing experience for the four young men competing in six different events Thursday, May 20 and Friday, May 21. With none of those track Tribe competitors being seniors and all of them being first-time State Meet competitors this season, that growth will be looked forward to and expected for future seasons, but for some of this year’s season grand finale competitors that growth happened and paid medal-winning dividends within just a day or even only within a couple hours.

The Kee boys track team was represented in a pair of field events at this year’s Iowa High School State Track Meet held at Drake Stadium in Des Moines Thursday-Saturday, May 20-22. Both of those events took place on the first day of that season grand finale, as Kee juniors Tyson Cota and Damon Weber each competed among Class 1A’s best in their respective field event specialties Thursday, May 20.

Needing a top-eight placement in their respective fields of 24 competitors in order to advance to the final round of point-scoring competition, neither Hawk ended up in that final top-eight and, thus, did not garner any team points. Still, both competitors gained valuable experience that they will return to the track and field program with next season as seniors.

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Haley Meyer finishes in top four of all three distance races, D-Medley also medals

Returning to the big blue oval of Drake Stadium in Des Moines for the first time since making history with a share of the program’s first-ever Class 1A State Championship in 2019 - the last time the Iowa High School State Track and Field Meet was held due to last spring’s COVID-19 cancellation, the Kee girls track team competed in that season grand finale again Thursday-Saturday, May 20-22. With about half of those championship team members returning from that history-making feat being joined by a trio of sophomore newcomers this spring, the Lady Hawks brought home four medals from their seven events qualified, scoring 20 team points to finish tied with Lisbon for 10th place in the final Class 1A team standings.

Braxton Stewart is double champion, Tribe qualifies in all four field events

The Waukon boys track team was looking to extend any portion of its season that it could in competing at the Class 2A State Qualifying Meet at Jesup Thursday, May 13. Four of this season’s team members were able to accomplish that goal by qualifying six different events for this year’s State Track Meet, meeting either requirement of a top-two event finish at Thursday’s meet or turning in one of the next eight best non-top-two performances from any of the eight Class 2A State Qualifying Meets taking place that same evening.

Annika Headington is shot put champion and double qualifier, joins fellow senior Maddy Waters in returning to grand finale; Criswell, Johnson qualify both individually and in relay

When the Waukon girls track team drove away from its Class 2A State Qualifying Meet at Jesup Thursday, May 13 just three Lady Indians knew they had earned automatic qualification in four events for this year’s State Track Meet being held in Des Moines later this week. By the middle of the following day, however, the track Tribe learned that its event qualification total nearly doubled with three more at-large berths, and those advancements involved more than triple the number of Lady Indians, with a total of seven State Meet qualifications involving 10 track Tribe members.

Meyer and Bakewell are both double champions, four-event qualifiers

The Kee girls track team continued to accomplish many of its season objectives at its Class 1A State Qualifying Meet Thursday, May 13 at Edgewood-Colesburg, despite having to also continue to overcome some obstacles in the way. Already dealing with illness and injury throughout the regular season, the Lady Hawks were dealt another challenging hand by COVID-19 that took their most seasoned veteran out of Thursday’s competition mix. Despite that latest adversity, the Kee girls were able to rack up nine qualifications for this year’s State Meet, winning four events for automatic advancement Thursday night and adding five more at-large qualifications with performances that ended up being within the top 14 non-championship results from throughout the 10 Class 1A State Qualifying Meets held throughout the state of Iowa.

The Kee boys track team was looking to extend its season in any way possible when the Hawks competed at their Class 1A State Qualifying Meet hosted by Edgewood-Colesburg Thursday, May 13. That extension would require an event championship at Thursday’s meet or one of the 14 next best non-championship performances at the 10 Class 1A State Qualifying Meets taking place across the state of Iowa.

The Kee boys originally came away with one automatic State Meet qualification from Thursday’s meet, as junior Tyson Cota won the long jump with a leap of 20’4.5”. As those next best 14 at-large performances were sorted out across the state, the Hawks found out the following Friday afternoon that fellow junior Damon Weber would end up joining Cota in this season’s grand finale in Des Moines, as his second-place shot put heave of 45’11.5” was far enough to earn one of those 14 at-large State Meet qualifications.

Waukon High School senior Annika Headington signed her letter of intent to play basketball at Mt. Mercy University in Cedar Rapids Wednesday, May 5. Pictured at right at the signing event are: Left to right - Front row: Dan, Annika and Denise Headington; Back row: Waukon girls basketball varsity head coach Ben Rausch and Mt. Mercy University women’s head basketball coach Tim Schuring.

Coach Schuring says he has known Headington for about eight years, working with her at different skill training sessions and as a coach of some of the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball teams she has played on during her basketball career thus far while he was an assistant coach on the Luther College men’s basketball team in Decorah. He said that once he took the head coaching job of the Mt. Mercy women’s program in March 2020 Headington was one of the first players on his recruiting radar.