Sports

A pair of wins this past week launched the Kee baseball team to the brink of its first Class 1A State Tournament berth since the Hawks’ 2021 State Runner-Up finish, an experience that some of this season’s senior team members got to be a part of as eighth graders at the start of their high school baseball careers. After receiving a first-round bye, this year’s Hawks began their postseason trail with a 6-0 home win over Turkey Valley Tuesday, July 8 before once again matching up with another fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squad, South Winneshiek, and playing to another postseason classic with the Warriors that this time came out in Kee’s favor at home by a 2-1 final result Saturday, July 12 to earn the Hawks the Class 1A District 5 championship and advancement to a Tuesday, July 15 Substate 3 championship match-up with ninth-rated Mason City Newman.

The Class 1A Regional Tournament trail both got its start and came to an end for the Kee softball team this past week, with the Hawks splitting the two regional tournament games they hosted over the latter half of last week to also have their 2025 season brought to a close. After a first-round bye for the Lady Hawks, that tournament trail got its start with a 4-1 home win over Rockford in the Class 1A Region 2 Quarterfinals Wednesday, July 9 before Kee’s summer campaign was brought to a close by a 14-3 loss at home to Riceville in the Region 2 Semifinals Saturday, July 12 in a game originally scheduled for Friday, July 11 but postponed due to stormy weather.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2025 season brought to a close in the early days of this past week, having to play on back-to-back nights due to the postponement of the Indians’ Class 2A District 8 first-round game from Saturday, July 5 to Monday, July 7. That postseason opener proved to be worth the wait, as the diamond Tribe came away with a 6-4 victory in that July 7 first-round match-up with Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader, earning advancement to the district semifinals played the very next night at Dyersville Beckman, who ended Waukon’s season with a 4-0 defeat.

As if the hills of Dubuque weren’t steep enough to climb on their own, the Waukon softball team faced another steep challenge in having to take its first step down the Class 3A Region 1 Tournament road against the top-rated Wahlert Catholic Golden Eagles in that Dubuque community Thursday, July 10. Being limited to just a single hit, the Lady Indians didn’t commit a single error or give up any free bases on walks or hit batters in the ballgame, but did surrender 14 hits of their own that included four homeruns, two triples and a double for extra bases on the way to a 10-0 Waukon mercy-rule defeat in four innings.

The Kee baseball team wrapped up its 2025 regular season in convincing fashion, and wrapped up its 25th Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) baseball championship in the process, its first such title since the 2022 Hawks claimed the crown with a 17-1 league record. Kee brought its 2025 UIC season to a close with a sweep of three games at home to start this past week, defeating Turkey Valley by an 8-2 count Monday, June 30 before clinching the UIC title with a 16-2 conference mark following a home doubleheader sweep of Postville Tuesday, July 1 by scores of 9-1 and 19-0 in a mercy-rule four innings.

The Waukon baseball team had its 2025 regular season schedule brought to a close a little earlier than expected this past week, as a Thursday, July 3 non-conference road date at Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader that was supposed to be the diamond Tribe’s final game of this regular season was called off due to rainy weather. That cancellation left just three games for the Indians to play during their final week of the regular season, and that slate started with a sweep of Crestwood at home, by scores of 7-0 and 17-0 in a mercy-rule four innings, in a Northeast Iowa Conference doubleheader Tuesday, July 1 that would determine the third-place finisher in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings. Following that NEIC sweep, the baseball Tribe traveled to Monona to play MFL/MarMac Wednesday, July 2 in a non-conference match-up that ended up being the final game of Waukon’s regular season schedule, and also ended up at a 4-1 loss for the Indians.

The Waukon softball team brought its 2025 regular season schedule to a close this past week, having that campaign ended a bit earlier than scheduled when a Thursday, July 3 non-conference game at MFL/MarMac that was supposed to be the Tribe’s regular season finale was, instead, rained out.

Prior to that weather-shortened end, the Lady Indians ended up falling in three final road games in Northeast Iowa Conference play to have their regular season end up in a seven-game losing streak. A June 26 postponement at New Hampton played out to a 7-4 Waukon loss to begin this past week Monday, June 30 before the Indians also surrendered a road doubleheader at Charles City Tuesday, July 1 by scores of 10-2 in five innings and 11-6.

The Kee softball team brought its 2025 regular season to a close by putting the wraps on this summer’s Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) season championship, sweeping four final UIC games to compile a 15-1 UIC record for the program’s first outright conference title since the 2018 Lady Hawks made an undefeated title run. Kee had more recently shared the title in 2021 and 2022 with a UIC season mark of 14-2 each of those years.

Those four final Lady Hawk games of the season produced a dominating sweep at West Central Monday, June 30 by scores of 15-0 in six innings and 18-1 in four innings. A final battle between two teams holding 13-1 UIC records coming into their Wednesday, July 2 regular season finale at North Fayette Valley also ended up in favor of the Lady Hawks, 8-0 in a mercy-rule five innings and 4-1.

The Kee softball team played another busy week of all types of dates this past week, including a single game, a doubleheader and a weekend tournament, playing to a 3-4 record in those seven games with half of those losses coming to Class 4A Waverly-Shell Rock to book-end the week’s schedule.

The Lady Hawks opened the week with a 5-0 loss at home to those large school Go-Hawks Tuesday, June 24 before splitting a home Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) doubleheader with South Winneshiek Wedneday, June 25, falling to the Warriors by an 11-9 result to suffer their first UIC loss of this season before winning the nightcap, 9-5. They then split four games at the Don Bosco Tournament Friday and Saturday, June 27-28 to finish in sixth place in that 12-team field, defeating Hudson, 5-1, and falling to Vinton-Shellsburg, 5-3, in Friday’s pool play round before defeating Don Bosco, 7-6, and then falling to Waverly-Shell Rock again, 5-0, in Saturday’s final round.

The Kee baseball team played to its first week of competition this season where the Hawks ended up with more losses than wins, as they ended the week with a pair of long road trips that resulted in four consecutive losses to some non-traditional and highly-regarded opponents. Kee’s diamond dwellers opened the week in more familiar fashion, sweeping an Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) doubleheader rescheduled from Monday, June 23 at North Fayette Valley to Tuesday, June 24 at home by scores of 12-6 and 10-0 in five innings.

The Hawks then fell in two games played at the Waterloo Bucks’ Riverfront Stadium Thursday, June 25 by scores of 5-2 to Burlington Notre Dame before also falling to Roland-Story, 8-0. They then also fell in two very close games played in the large Brent Prange Classic Saturday, June 28 at Ankeny Centennial, coming up just short, 5-4, to Class 2A fourth-rated West Lyon before falling in similar fashion, 4-3, to Class 1A Coon Rapids-Bayard.