Sports

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.

The Waukon softball team ended up playing just three games this past week, bringing their home schedule for this 2025 campaign to a close falling short of the win column in all three contests and having a Thursday, June 26 road date at New Hampton postponed by stormy weather to Monday, June 30. Prior to their final week at home, the softball Indians had wrapped up their previous week splitting four games played in the two-day West Delaware Tournament, first falling to Class 2A 13th-rated Cascade, 14-1 in six innings, and then defeating Class 5A Cedar Rapids Washington, 18-5 in five innings, during the first day of the tournament, Friday, June 20. The Lady Indians then split two more games Saturday, June 21, first defeating Monticello, 11-3 in five innings, before falling to Class 1A ninth-rated Edgewood-Colesburg, 11-1 in  four innings, to end up in 10th place in the 16-team tournament.

The Waukon baseball team played to an even split of its four games played this past week - all in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play, and was just a handful of runs from having that week end up undefeated. The diamond Tribe opened the week with a pair of road victories, winning at Charles City by scores of 18-1 in a mercy-rule five innings and 4-1 Tuesday, June 24. The Indians then fall at home to New Hampton Friday, June 27 by a pair of two-run results, 13-11 and 3-1.

Currently holding an 8-14 season record that includes a mark of 5-9 in Northeast Iowa Conference play, the Indians were next scheduled to host Crestwood Tuesday, July 1 before playing at MFL/MarMac Wednesday, July 2 and at Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader Thursday, July 3. The diamond Tribe will then get its Class 2A District Tournament underway Saturday, July 5 against Clayton Ridge/Central Elkader in a game to be played at MFL/MarMac.

The Harpers Ferry Fireflies traveled to West Des Moines Saturday and Sunday, June 7-8 for the Granny Basketball State Tournament. The Fireflies won four of six games they played in the tournament, including a loss in the championship game to make the Fireflies this year’s State Tournament Runner-Up.

During day one of Pool Play competition at the tournament, the Fireflies played three games and won two of those three, falling in their first game by a single point, 49-48, to the Late Bloomers before recording victories of 73-28 over the Classic Mustangs and 70-50 over the Dubuque Kipper Klippers.

The Kee baseball team played to a week’s result of 5-2, recovering from its first two Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) losses of this season early in the week to roll through its five remaining games. Those two UIC defeats came right away in the week, as the Hawks fell to MFL/MarMac at home Monday, June 16 in a battle for the UIC lead by scores 7-2 and 6-5, but Kee’s diamond dwellers swept the remainder of their opponents for the week, starting with a 3-1 home win over South Winneshiek Tuesday, June 17. A sweep of a Wednesday, June 18  doubleheader came at the expense of two different opponents in rescheduled games, at the Hawks claimed a 7-6 win over Waukon in game one before blasting North Fayette Valley, 13-3 in six innings. The Hawks then wrapped up their week with a 19-9 win in extra innings at Clayton Ridge Thursday, June 19 before also having to go to extra innings before pulling out a 1-0 win at home over Osage Saturday, June 21.

The Class 1A 12th-rated Kee softball team played through its busiest week of the season, battling its way through nine games played and putting six of those in the win column. Those six wins all came against fellow Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) squads, both in and out of actual UIC play this past week, as the Lady Hawks opened their week with a home doubleheader sweep of MFL/MarMac Monday, June 16 by scores of 10-2 and 8-0, both in a mercy-rule five innings, before falling to Class 2A 11th-rated Jesup Tuesday, June 17 by an 18-9 count and then sweeping another home doubleheader Wednesday, June 18, this time by scores of 8-3 and 8-0 mercy rule in five innings over Turkey Valley.

The Waukon softball team ended up with a bit of a lighter load than originally anticipated this past week, but the end to the week still proved to be heavy with competition, as the Lady Indians put two of five games fully completed this past week into the win column. Their week began with a Tuesday, June 17 non-conference road date at South Winneshiek that saw the diamond Tribe play to a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning before Mother Nature took control and suspended the game with stormy weather, with completion of the game still pending as of press time for this week’s edition.