Sports

The Waukon girls cross country team has earned a return trip to the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet to be run at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course located about seven miles north of Fort Dodge this Saturday, October 27. The State Meet consists of four classes of competition, beginning at 11 a.m. with the Class 4A girls race and proceeding with the Class 4A boys at 11:30 and about every half hour after that with respective girls and boys races for each class. The Waukon girls are scheduled to compete at 1 p.m. and will be looking to improve on their ninth-place team finish from last season’s Class 2A State Meet. The Indians return five of their seven competitors from last season’s State Meet team. They will be occupying Box 17 on the 22-box starting grid. The team and individual awards ceremony for Class 2A is slated to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m.

The Kee girls cross country team has earned a return trip to the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet to be run at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course located about seven miles north of Fort Dodge this Saturday, October 27. The State Meet consists of four classes of competition, beginning at 11 a.m. with the Class 4A girls race and proceeding with the Class 4A boys at 11:30 and about every half hour after that with respective girls and boys races for each class. The Kee girls are scheduled to compete at 2 p.m. in their Class 1A race and will be looking to further advance on their third-place finish earned at last fall’s State Meet. The Hawks return four of their five scored runners from last season’s trophy-winning performance. They will start in Box 16 of the 22-box starting grid. Team and individual awards for Class 1A are slated to begin at approximately 3 p.m.

In a race featuring more teams ranked in the top 15 than any other Class 2A State Qualifying field, the Waukon girls cross country team proved they belonged among this season’s elite squads by earning advancement to the season grand finale Class 2A State Meet for the second straight year.

Competing in a field that featured four teams rated among Class 1A’s top 15 teams, including three in the latest top-five rankings, the Kee girls cross country team topped all that high regard to emerge as the team champion at its Class 1A State Qualifying Meet hosted by Cedar Rapids Kennedy Thursday, October 18.

Undoubtedly fueling the fourth-rated Lady Hawks’ title run was a runner-up finish at their own Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet to a fifth-rated South Winneshiek squad that denied a Kee repeat UIC championship just a week earlier, an inspiration that Kee cross country coach Pat Wagner feels not only motivated his girls to not let that happen again at this next level but also catapulted his crew past a third-rated Denver team by a double-digit final margin of Kee’s 68 points to 77 for Denver.

Already knowing they had wrapped up a fifth State Play-Off berth since beginning play in the Class 2A field in 2012, the Waukon football team still had a great deal to play for when it hosted North Fayette Valley in the final game of the 2018 regular season and Class 2A District 4 play Friday, October 19. Regardless of the game’s final result, the Indians were going to have at least a share of this season’s district championship and guaranteed play-off qualification, but they also knew a win would give the program its first outright district championship and undefeated league mark since joining the Class 2A ranks, as well as the hosting of at least their first play-off game.

It might be said that the Kee football team saved its best for last, as the grid Hawks’ final game of the season looked to be an upset of Eight-Player top 10-rated Midland at home Friday, October 19. Unfortunately, the visiting Eagles also saved their best for last, as they scored a final touchdown with just 23 seconds left to play to avoid the upset loss, instead stealing a 46-44 victory away from the Hawks.

The Waukon football team accomplished more than just another victory with its 44-24 road win at Anamosa Friday, October 12. That win also earned the grid Tribe automatic qualification for the Class 2A State Play-Offs and a chance at what’s believed to be its first outright district championship in program history.

“We are pleased to know we have a play-off berth with one game to go,” Waukon football coach Chad Beermann said. ‘However, we want to win the district outright. Monticello or Columbus could tie us in district wins, though we have the head-to-head (advantage for play-off qualification). We are gunning for what we believe to be Waukon’s first-ever outright district title. That would be quite the feather in the cap for this year’s seniors.”

The Waukon volleyball team put together its greatest week on the court when its beginning to matter the most, wrapping up its final week of the regular season with five wins in seven matches, all against Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) opponents. That success began with the net Tribe’s first dual match win in more than a decade over a traditionally strong but currently struggling Charles City team at the home of the Comets, 9-25, 25-19, 25-19 and 25-23, Tuesday, October 9 before winning four of six matches at the Northeast Iowa Conference Tournament hosted by Decorah Saturday, October 13, defeating that same Charles City team, Decorah, Oelwein and Crestwood but also falling to the NEIC’s top two teams from the regular season, Waverly-Shell Rock and New Hampton, to finish third at the tournament.

In a battle of teams with 1-6 season records, the Kee football team looked anything but that as the grid Hawks rolled to a 54-8 triumph at Central Elkader Friday, October 12. Setting the tone on both sides of the ball early with both an offensive and defensive touchdown, the Hawks jumped to a 28-0 first quarter headstart and pitched a 54-0 shut-out until Central finally managed its lone scoreboard production in the fourth quarter.

“We challenged the boys to get off to a good start and set the tone early in the game,” Kee football coach Chad Winters said. “They rose up to the challenge and played a dominating first half.”

The Kee volleyball team wrapped up its regular season with a split of its final two dual matches of the season, picking up its first Upper Iowa Conference victory of the season along the way. The Hawk netters opened the week with a home victory Tuesday, October 9 over a Postville team they had lost a pair of weekend tournament matches to, falling in the first set by just a 24-26 result before bouncing back to sweep the final three sets, 25-12, 25-20 and 25-21. The Kee volleyballers then wrapped up their regular season with a loss at MFL/MarMac Thursday, October 11, falling by sweeping scores of 25-19, 25-11 and 25-16.