Sports

For the second consecutive week, the Waukon girls basketball team had an undefeated week denied by a team from a larger school ranked among the top teams in their respective class. This past week, the Lady Indians had a pair of games scheduled on back-to-back nights, splitting that pair of contests played on the road. The better part of that split came in a 51-38 Northeast Iowa Conference win at New Hampton Friday, January 20, with that win being followed by a 63-36 loss at Class 5A third-rated Waterloo West the very next day, Saturday, January 21.

Holding a 9-6 season record that now includes a mark of 5-2 in Northeast Iowa Conference play, the Lady Indians are next scheduled to host Class 1A eighth-rated Central Elkader Thursday, January 26 before playing at Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, January 27. The Waukon girls then play at North Fayette Valley Tuesday, January 31 before hosting Decorah Friday, February 3.

The Waukon girls wrestling team continued its climb up the ladder of success this past week with a nearly perfect week of team results in both tournament and dual meet action. Despite quickly adding a rather large tournament to its schedule to start this past week, the Lady Indians still finished just a couple spots from an undefeated week as they placed third among 15 teams at the Dubuque Senior Invitational Monday, January 9 before emerging as the top team in a home double-dual Thursday, January 12 with a sweep of both New Hampton/Turkey Valley, 36-18, and North Fayette Valley, 39-18.

The busiest week of its season thus far saw the Waukon boys basketball team remain in the grips of a now six-game non-winning streak, adding four games to that stretch that dates back to nearly a month ago. Those four defeats all came at home on a pair of back-to-back nights of competition, beginning with an 88-41 loss to undefeated Northeast Iowa Conference leader Waverly-Shell Rock Monday, January 9 in a game rescheduled from December 16 and a 71-39 loss to La Crescent, MN Tuesday, January 10 to start the week. Another pair of home losses ended the week, as Crestwood dealt the bucket Tribe a 67-53 loss Friday, January 13 and Monticello did likewise Saturday, January 14 by a 58-36 final result.

The Kee girls basketball team remained in search of its first win of the 2023 portion of this season’s schedule, having a busy schedule of three games this past week end up shy of that goal. The Lady Hawks opened the week with losses in back-to-back nights of road competition, falling at New Hampton Monday, January 9 by a 77-42 final result before suffering a similar fate, 63-41, Tuesday, January 10 at MFL/MarMac. They then returned home to host Class 1A eighth-rated Central Elkader, falling to the undefeated Lady Warriors by a 62-22 final result.

The Hawks were next scheduled to play at North Fayette Valley Tuesday, January 17 before hosting Clayton Ridge Friday, January 20. They will then play at South Winneshiek Tuesday, January 24 before hosting Postville Friday, January 27.

The busiest week of the season for the Kee boys basketball team saw the Hawks play four games in a span of six days, with just one of them ending up in the win column - in thrilling fashion, with one of the three Kee losses from the week just missing out on the win column in overtime. The Hawks opened the week with that overtime loss, 62-58, at New Hampton Monday, January 9 in a game rescheduled from December 22 before falling at Class 2A top-10 rated MFL/MarMac, 69-50, Tuesday, January 10. The lone Kee win of the week came in the final seconds of a Friday, January 13 home game with Central Elkader, 36-35, before the Hawks faced their second Northeast Iowa Conference team of the week, falling to Crestwood, 62-50, in a game played in the Winter Classic at Upper Iowa University in Fayette Saturday, January 14.

Senior pair of Jakob Regan, Corbyn Palmer win tournament titles

The Waukon boys wrestling team returned to the mat for the first time following the holiday break, doing so with pretty good success in securing its first Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) dual victory of the season and finishing in the middle of its first weekend tournament of the new year. The wrestling Indians not only secured their first NEIC win of this season but also notched their first NEIC victory in quite some time over a traditionally stronger Charles City squad, 45-30, at home Thursday, January 5. The mat Tribe followed that initial NEIC win with a fourth-place finish out of seven teams at the Flanagan Invitational hosted by Crestwood High School Saturday, January 7.

The Waukon girls wrestling team returned to action following the holiday break with one of its busiest weeks of the season, competing in a pair of tournaments and a double-dual event in the span of five days. Both of those tournaments resulted in top-10 team finishes for the Lady Tribe, as the Indians finished 10th at the 17-team Osage Tournament Monday, January 2 and then placed seventh out of 30 teams at the Central Elkader Tournament Friday, January 6, with junior 100-pounder Mia Kurth pacing that effort with the mat Tribe’s lone individual title. In between those two tournament results the Lady Indians opened their home schedule with a split of a double-dual Thursday, January 5, falling to Charles City by a 39-27 result before defeating Postville, 45-30.

A return to competition following the holiday break turned out to be a little less busy for the Kee boys basketball team than originally planned, as the Hawks played just two of the three games they had scheduled over a five-day frame this past week. A Tuesday, January 3 home game with Waukon was canceled due to winter weather, but the Kee boys still played on back-to-back days to close out the week. Both of those contests were played against Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) opponents, and both of them ended up shy of the win column, as the Hawks fell at Turkey Valley Friday, January 6 by a 75-44 final result before suffering a similar fate at home with a 63-49 loss to North Fayette Valley Saturday, January 7.

What was scheduled to be a pretty busy first week back in competition following the recent holiday break still ended up being a busy weekend for the Kee girls basketball team this past week. Originally scheduled to play three games in a span of five days to start the 2023 portion of their schedule, the Lady Hawks had a Tuesday, January 3 non-conference home game with Waukon canceled due to winter weather with no indication of a make-up date being rescheduled. The Kee girls did end the week with a pair of games played on back-to-back days, with both of those games being played against Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) foes and both also ending up shy of the win column. The Hawks first fell at Turkey Valley Friday, January 6 by a 57-29 final margin before suffering a similar fate at home against North Fayette Valley, 87-44, Saturday, January 7 in a rare afternoon matinee contest.

The Kee boys basketball team ended up playing two of its three games scheduled this past week, splitting that pair on consecutive nights of competition in the Hawks’ final week of competition in 2022. Kee opened the week falling just short of Wapsie Valley, 64-61, in a Monday, December 19 non-conference home date but bounced back the very next night for a 47-38 home win over West Central to defeat a second consecutive Upper Iowa Conference opponent.

A Thursday, December 22 game at New Hampton was called off by winter weather until a date yet to be determined. The Hawks wrapped up the 2022 portion of this season’s schedule with a 2-4 overall record that includes a mark of 2-2 in Upper Iowa Conference play.