Sports

by Jennifer Bissell

Baseball has always been in John Papp’s blood. A native of the Milwaukee, WI area, Papp played collegiate baseball before earning his MBA. Since moving to the Waukon area with his wife, the former Elizabeth Dehli of the Harpers Ferry area, Papp has been involved in youth athletics with his boys.

That gave him the idea of the unique way he could give back to the community and still be involved in the sport he loves.

Papp recently opened Gap To Gap, an indoor training facility for baseball, softball and golf athletes to improve their game. Located at 219 Highway 9, just south of Waukon, the facility offers a large space for local athletes to get their practice swings in, as well as for teams to hold practices at any time of the year.

Having broken a five-year drought in appearances as a team at the Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships last season with a 12th-place finish at the Class 2A State Meet, the Waukon girls cross country team took another giant leap forward at this fall’s season grand finale, perhaps surpassing even their own expectations when they brought home this year’s State Runner-Up trophy. Being ranked seventh among this season’s Class 2A distance elite heading into the Friday, October 31 Class 2A State Meet held at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge, the Lady Indians continued their season trend of finishing no lower than third at any of their meets and took full advantage of an opportunity to showcase their entire team effort that has fueled that trend, even at the highest level of competition.

The end to one of the most consistent and successful individual careers in the recent history of Kee boys cross country came to a close this past weekend where every Iowa high school cross country athlete strives to be, as Hawk senior Justin Wagner brought Kee’s 2025 season and his high school cross country career to completion competing in his fourth consecutive Class 1A State Meet, held Saturday, November 1 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge.

Competing for the fourth consecutive season among Class 1A’s distance-running elite, Wagner finished just beyond the top-20 individuals in that season grand finale, repeating his 21st-place finish that he had also achieved last season. This year’s near-miss of that top-20 in that Class 1A field of 152 runners came in a time of 17:00.2, the Hawk senior’s best time of this season and just a handful of seconds beyond his career-best time he achieved at last season’s State Meet.

The Waukon football team had its 2025 season brought to a close in the second round of the Class 2A State Play-Offs in a Halloween Night match-up at fifth-rated Alburnett Friday, October 31. The trick was trying to stop Class 2A’s leading rusher, Pirate junior Laken Caves, and that certainly ended up being no treat as the Pirate speedster racked up 267 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in leading his squad to a 34-16 win over the Indians for an end to their fall grid campaign.

Another trip to the Class 2A State Cross Country Meet resulted in another top-10 team finish for the Waukon boys cross country team, as the 2025 version of that program consistency made it a half-dozen consecutive high-end finishes for the distance Tribe with its sixth-place team finish among the Class 2A elite field of 15 scored teams competing in this season’s grand finale Friday, October 31 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge. Coming into Friday’s State Meet ranked eighth, and having to replace three runners from last season’s seventh-place State Meet team finish, the Indians improved on both of those aspects with their sixth-place finish that was a dozen points away from a top-five team finish.

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Qualifying for the Class 2A State Play-Offs for the ninth consecutive season, the 5-3 Waukon football team played host to a Bellevue team in the opening round of that play-off series Friday, October 24 that boasted a 7-1 season record and as high as a number-four ranking among Class 2A teams, all fueled by an air attack that led all teams across the state of Iowa with an average of 312 passing yards per game. Undaunted by those high-end numbers, the football Indians grounded that Comet air attack to its second lowest yardage total of the season and also ground out a 34-13 triumph in that Class 2A Play-Off opener, utilizing a 4-0 advantage in turnovers and racking up 410 yards of offense to help limit Bellevue to its lowest point total of the season while helping earn themselves advancement further down that postseason path.

The Waukon volleyball team had its 2025 season brought to a close just as its postseason was getting underway, as the Lady Indians (26-6) traveled to 14th-rated Anamosa (24-11) Tuesday, October 21 for the opening round of Class 3A Region 8 Tournament play. Despite some competitive surges that saw the net Tribe match the host Raiders blow for blow throughout most of the night, Anamosa ended up pulling away in each of the match’s three sets to end up with a sweeping end to the Indians’ season in three sets that proved to be closer and closer as the night wore on, by scores of 16-25, 17-25 and 19-25.

The Kee volleyball team had its 2025 season brought to a close Monday, October 20 in the opening round of Class 1A Regional Tournament play when the Lady Hawks traveled to Edgewood-Colesburg. With that host Viking squad featuring a 6’2” middle hitter that posed her own challenges for the Hawks at the net, Edgewood-Colesburg proved to be much more than just a single tall player as one of its other hitters blasted away for 19 kills of her own in leading the sweeping charge of a Kee match defeat in three sets by scores of 7-25, 4-25 and 10-25 to bring the Hawks’ fall campaign to a close without a match victory to their credit.

With the match win, Edgewood-Colesburg advanced on to host Starmont Wednesday, October 22. The Vikings also won that regional match, sweeping the visiting Stars by scores of 25-10, 25-16 and 25-13 to advance further on to the Monday, October 27 regional semifinals at and against fifth-rated Dunkerton.

Hawk senior will compete among Class 1A’s distance elite for fourth time this Saturday

The bittersweetness of each year’s State Qualifying Meet that could mean the abrupt end or joyful extension of the high school cross country season resulted in the Kee boys cross country team experiencing both of those to some degree when the Hawks competed in the field of 14 scored teams at the Class 1A State Qualifier hosted by Starmont High School Thursday, October 23. A top-two finish in the meet’s team standings or a top-10 result among individual runners is required at the meet to continue a season on to every team’s or runner’s ultimate destination of advancement to the Class 1A State Meet being held this Saturday, November 1 in Fort Dodge.

The Kee volleyball team brought its regular season to a close this past week with two final Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) dual matches, still battling for its first match win of the season right up to the very end. The Hawk netters first wrapped up their home schedule for this fall season, falling to Turkey Valley in three sets Tuesday, October 14 by scores of 15-25, 8-25 and 14-25, and then brought their regular season to a close with a final match at West Central Thursday, October 16, coming within the minimum two points of a set win on each side of a wider gap in falling in three sets once again, by scores of 27-29, 18-25 and 23-25.

The Hawks were scheduled to begin Class 1A Regional Tournament play Monday, October 20 at and against Edgewood-Colesburg. Details of that match will be printed in the October 29 edition of The Standard.