Sports

The Waukon boys cross country team got its 2026 campaign started Tuesday, August 25 at the Edgewood-Colesburg Invitational that featured only high school competition, and also had all levels of that high school event compete in just one race. The Indians placed three of their runners within the top-15 overall competitors in the 114-runner boys field to help tally a team score of 112 points that placed the distance Tribe fourth in the meet’s field of 11 scored teams which was topped by a Waterloo United team that placed four runners within that same top-15 and all five of its scored runners within the meet’s first 16 individual finishers for a team total of 43 points.

Even with eight returning varsity letterwinners this season, the 2026 Kee volleyball team will still have an abundance of new faces - at least to the high school volleyball court - to try and make this fall’s campaign the best it can be. Coming off of a winless season last fall and in the grips of a five-season stretch with no more than two match wins during any of those campaigns, the combination of those varsity veterans and a renewed look from the top down for this season’s squad is looking to change that recent trend.

The change at the top for Kee volleyball comes in head coach Kelly Welsh. The former Kelly Dibert is a 2004 graduate of Kee High School, where she played volleyball for the Lady Hawks during her high school career. She also brings experience coaching youth volleyball within local programs to the helm of the varsity level of play.

Waukon High School and the Allamakee Athletic Booster Club hosted the annual Community Appreciation Meal Membership Drive and Meet the Team Night at Waukon High School Tuesday, August 18. In addition to the meal and membership drive, the 2026 Waukon Indian fall sports teams were introduced and all in attendance were treated to a motivational message from Waukon High School alum Marcus Weymiller, who presented a challenge to local student-athletes of raising the standard in everything they take part in, while he also outlined a four-step process to help accomplish that feat - a process that helped him achieve some of his own lofty goals in life.

The 2026 Waukon football team will return nearly half of this season’s overall program numbers of 51 players, freshmen through seniors, as varsity letterwinners from a squad last fall that put together a 6-4 season record and made a ninth consecutive appearance in the Class 2A State Play-Offs. The grid Tribe of 2025 played to a 4-1 Class 2A District 3 mark that laid claim to a District Runner-Up result last fall that came behind an Osage team that was undefeated until the Class 2A State Semifinals last season, with 24 young men returning from that grid Tribe mix to help pave the way again this season.

Barb Trammell, former Lansing resident who founded the concept of Granny Basketball in 2005 (as proclaimed on the Lansing welcome sign in the submitted photo below) and who now lives in California, returned to the state of Iowa in mid-July for the Granny Basketball National Tournament played in Ankeny July 17-19. A former member of the original Lansing Great Dames Granny Basketball team, Trammell brought her current Granny Basketball team, the California Poppies, to this year’s National Tournament in Iowa, with fellow former Lansing Great Dames players Sharol Zweibohmer of Lansing and Denise Tinker of Elgin joining the Poppies in playing in this year’s National Tournament. Trammell is pictured in the middle of the three ladies in the front row of the submitted team photo at right below.

The annual Couples Golf Tournament for 2026 was held Sunday, August 9 at the Waukon Golf and Country Club. There were 27 couples that participated in this year’s event. Mother Nature tried to dampen the golfers’ spirits, but allowed the event to happen with just a bit of delay in the start.

Once again the winner of the tournament was the mother/son team of Brenda and Logan Houg, who shot a 68 to win their fifth consecutive tournament title. Other flight winners were Nancy and Beaver Weis, and Alyce and Jeff Schaller. Other top flight results are listed in this week's edition of The Standard. Pick up the Wednesday, August 19, 2026 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.

The Waukon baseball team of 2026 played to one of the program’s best seasons in recent history with a 22-6 overall record, not only playing to its first winning record since the 2008 season but also recording the most wins since that 2008 season’s 31 victories. Within that overall mark, the baseball Tribe also played its way to a 14-3 Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) result that placed the Indians atop the Large School division of this season’s new UIC format, the first time since the 2007 season that Waukon baseball has finished atop any type of conference standings, with that 2007 campaign being the only time Waukon baseball ever won the Northeast Iowa Conference season title.

The Waukon softball team played its way to a 6-24 overall record during its 2026 campaign, as former Waukon softball head coach Melissa Ward returned to the helm of the program after a two-year absence. This summer’s overall result includes a mark of 4-16 in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play that placed the Lady Indians sixth in the final Large School Division standings of the UIC, as an overall young squad that featured just one senior on this season’s roster and as many as three each of sophomores and freshmen in the line-up, along with one eighth grader, worked to find the right mix as the season played on.

Derek Heins of West Union won the 2026 Men’s Invitational Tournament hosted by the Waukon Golf & Country Club Saturday and Sunday, July 25-26. Heins, the Invitational’s 2022 Champion, birdied the final two holes of regulation play to force a play-off with 2016 Invitational Champion Heath Hesse, and ultimately claimed the tournament title on the second play-off hole. Submitted photo.

For a full recap of this event, pick up the Wednesday, August 5, 2026 print edition of The Standard or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.

The Northeast Iowa Mudd Puppies, a team of baseball players combining from several communities throughout northeast Iowa, played their way to a State Championship in the 2026 United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Iowa State Tournament held in Cedar Rapids July 17-19. The team competed in the 13 and Under AA division of the tournament competition, sweeping through all six of its tournament games over a three-day period to win this year’s State Tournament crown.