Sports

The Kee baseball team opened its 2016 season with a busy initial week of six games, managing just two victories in that six-game stretch. The Hawks got their season underway with a home doubleheader loss to Decorah Tuesday, May 24 by scores of 9-6 and 8-6 before splitting another doubleheader at Maquoketa Valley Thursday, May 26, an 8-6 Kee loss being followed by a 17-2 Hawk triumph. The Hawks then split another pair of games to finish third in their own Shooky Fink Tournament Saturday, May 28, falling by a narrow, 2-1 loss to Waterloo West in the opening round of the tournament before rebounding with a 10-0 rout of Osage in five innings to win the tournament’s consolation championship.

The Waukon softball team opened its season in convincing fashion before having that early-season momentum abruptly halted by a pair of ranked opponents to end the week. The Indians kicked off the season with a 12-0 romp at Central Elkader Tuesday, May 24 before being swept at home by Class 4A 13th-rated Waverly-Shell Rock by scores of 10-0 in five innings and 11-2 Thursday, May 26. The Indians wrapped up the week with a 6-0 loss at Class 1A fourth-rated Kee Saturday, May 28.

The Indians were next slated to play at MFL/MarMac Wednesday, June 1 before hosting a doubleheader with Charles City Thursday, June 2 and playing in the Charles City Tournament Saturday, June 4. The softball Tribe will then play another varsity pair at Decorah Monday, June 6 before playing at South Winneshiek Tuesday, June 7 and then at New Hampton Thursday, June 9.

by Val Meyer

The Kee softball team has its 2016 campaign off to an impressive start, not only mowing down all four of its first opponents of the season for an undefeated start but also keeping all four of those opponents from finding homeplate in posting a combined 39-0 scoreboard advantage in those first four games. Those victories included a 12-0 rout of Decorah at home in just four innings Tuesday, May 24 followed by a doubleheader sweep at MFL/MarMac Thursday, May 26 by scores of 9-0 and 12-0 in five innings, and ending with a 6-0 defeat of intra-county foe Waukon at home Saturday, May 28.

The 2016 Waukon softball team will return what dictates to be a full line-up - nine players - with varsity letterwinning experience from last season, but one of the most missed faces from that campaign will be at the top of the Indian softball totem pole, as head coach Joe O’Neill has been forced to step down from that position this season due to health reasons. O’Neill had assumed the softball Tribe’s lead post just last season, guiding the Indians to a 7-19 overall record that included a 2-13 mark that placed the Indians sixth in the final Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings.

Despite returning enough letterwinners - nine - to field an entire line-up, the Kee baseball team will still remain relatively young in experience for its 2016 campaign, as just two seniors return to lead this year’s squad. The Hawks graduated five seniors from last season’s team that posted an 11-22 overall record, including a 6-10 mark that placed the Kee diamond dwellers in sixth place in the final Upper Iowa Conference standings.

“We have plenty of letterwinners but are looking more for senior leadership than anything else,” second-year Kee head baseball coach Jim Mauss said. “We need both someone who can be vocal and also lead by example. Someone who hates losing so much that it rubs off on his teammates. I want to coach competitors, players that play 120% no matter what the score or situation is!”

The 2016 Waukon baseball team will be looking to answer some question marks, as graduation of seven seniors from last year’s squad that posted a 12-17 overall record took a majority of the Tribe’s starting line-up and statistical leadership. However, six returning letterwinners and some young talent will be looked to for answers to this season’s questions.

Within that veteran half dozen are four of this season’s five seniors, including Haden Hammel, Peyton Hesse, Will Keenan and Chris Miller. Fellow senior Zach Troendle rounds out an upperclassman crew that fourth-year Waukon head baseball coach Jerry Keenan is looking forward to leading this year’s diamond squad. Junior Tanner Mathis and sophomore Mitchell Snitker round out this year’s list of returning letterwinners for the baseball Tribe.

The Waukon girls track team made one final appearance for the 2016 season, making that final appearance memorable at the Iowa High School State Track Meet held Thursday through Saturday, May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines by winning the team’s first State medals since 2009 in two out of the Indians’ three qualified events and breaking a nearly 40-year-old school record in the process. That new standard was set in the track Tribe’s highest finish at the season grand finale, a fourth-place result in both its eight-team heat and overall in the 24-team Class 2A field of the sprint medley that resulted in a clocking of 1:51.93, which bested that event’s previous Waukon girls track record of 1:52.10 set in 1977.

The 2016 Waukon boys track season came to a close where all teams strive to be, with three Indians competing in five events at the Iowa High School State Track Meet held Thursday through Saturday, May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Seniors Peyton Hesse and Wyatt Wille wrapped up their careers at the season grand finale, being joined by junior Tyler O’Neill in competing amongst the Class 2A track and field elite, with Hesse highlighting that final Indian showing for 2016 by winning an eighth-place medal in the 800 meter run.

O’Neill led off the Indian effort at the season grand finale Thursday morning, May 19. The Tribe’s most recent distance running leader ran with pack leaders early in the race but slowed off that and his usual pace under the warming conditions, finishing 23rd in that 23-runner Class 2A field in 11:03.41. Aplington-Parkersburg senior C.J. May claimed this year’s Class 2A 3200 meter crown in a time of 9:39.94.

The 2016 track and field season officially came to an end for the Kee girls track team, with two of its members competing one final time in their specialty events among the elite in Class 1A of the Iowa High School State Track Meet held Thursday through Saturday, May 19-21 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. That Kee pair included freshman Katie

Brennan and sophomore Kendra Cooper, who finished on opposite spectrum ends among their respective event elite.

Brennan was the first to compete for the Lady Hawks, lining up among Class 1A’s top 24 distance runners in the 3000 meter run Thursday afternoon, May 19. In her first-ever Iowa High School State Track Meet, Brennan found herself toward the end of that 24-runner pack initially, but willed her way back over the last severals laps of the event to end up fourth in a time of 11:27.40. The Class 1A 3000 meter run was won by East Mills freshman Janette Schraft in 10:48.20.

Kee boys track junior Danny Brennan leads a small pack in the Class 1A 800 meter run Saturday morning, May 21 at the State Track Meet in Des Moines. In his second consecutive State Meet appearance in the event, Brennan ran to a clocking of 2:02.57 to finish fourth in his 12-runner section and end up in the final medal-winning eighth place overall out of the 24 Class 1A runners competing in the event, which was won by Mount Ayr senior Kyle Dolecheck for the third consecutive year in a time of 1:57.15. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on The Standard’s website, www.waukonstandard.com.