Sports

In what turned out to be the only game of the week for the Kee girls basketball team, a match-up between two squads both still in search of their first win of the season took until the very final seconds of the Kee girls’ Tuesday, December 13 Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) game at Postville to determine which team would continue that search. Even though it was the Lady Hawks who didn’t move the scoreboard for the game’s final six minutes of the contest, they had done enough prior to that final silence to be able to hold off the host Pirates and secure the first Kee win of the season, 36-33.

The Waukon girls wrestling team had a busy end to this past week, competing in both dual meet and tournament action on back-to-back nights. The Lady Indians took on a traditionally strong Waverly-Shell Rock squad in their first Northeast Iowa Conference dual meet competition Thursday, December 8, falling by a 60-24 final result, before wresting to a fifth-place finish in the South Winneshiek Tournament held at Luther College in Decorah, with junior Kloe Hemmersbach pinning her way to the 170-pound tournament title on the way to an undefeated week on the mat.

The Indian mat ladies were next slated to compete at Decorah Thursday, December 15 with the Vikings and Central Elkader to wrap up the 2022 portion of this season’s schedule. They will return to the mat after the holiday break for a Monday, January 2 tournament at Osage before a Thursday, January 5 home date with Charles City.

What was scheduled to be a busy week of three games this past week for the Kee boys basketball team, instead turned out to be just a pair of games, as the Hawks had a Friday, December 9 home date in Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play with North Fayette Valley postponed by winter weather to a rescheduled date yet to be determined. Games that were played both earlier in the week and right after that postponement both fell short of the win column, despite the Hawks turning in much different offensive results in each contest. A 54-17 UIC defeat at Clayton Ridge Tuesday, December 6 was followed by an 80-66 loss to Lanesboro, MN in the annual Border Battle played in Decorah Saturday, December 10.

Senior Jakob Regan reaches 100 career wins on way to tournament title

The Waukon boys wrestling team battled through a busy week, competing on three different days in three dual meets and a weekend tournament. The Indian matmen fell short of the win column in any of their three duals, falling in a double-dual at South Winneshiek Tuesday, December 6 by scores of 54-27 to Fillmore Central/Lanesboro/Mabel-Canton out of Minnesota and 54-24 to the host South Winneshiek squad. The mat Tribe then traveled to Class 3A top-rated Waverly-Shell Rock Thursday, December 8, falling by a final result of 58-22, before competing in the Zimmerman Invitational hosted by Maquoketa High School Saturday, December 10 and placing fourth as a team, with senior Jakob Regan claiming the Indians’ only weight class championship at the event, topping the 126-pound field, and reaching the milestone mark of 100 career victories on the mat.

A busy latter part of this past week ended up resulting in a split of two games for the Waukon girls basketball team, and was just a point away from being a sweep. After being idle from competition for more than a week’s time - having not played since consecutive nights dating back to the final week of November, the Lady Indians played another pair of back-to-back nights of basketball to end this past week. Those most recent consecutive nights of competition included a 57-53 loss at home to Caledonia, MN in the Tribe’s second double overtime game so far this season Thursday, December 8, followed by a 49-36 win at Crestwood that opened the Waukon girls’ Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) season Friday, December 9.

Bowling in their first road competition of the new season, the Waukon girls and boys bowling teams both came up a bit shy of recording a victory in their Friday, December 2 competition at Decorah. However, all in attendance at the event were able to witness a first-time accomplishment for the Waukon bowling program, as Waukon boys bowling senior Cody Huinker continued to imprint his name at the top of the program’s bowling elite with the first perfect game of all strikes (300 pins) ever bowled by a Waukon High School bowler in competition.

That historic feat of 300-game perfection obviously established a new Waukon boys bowling record that can only be tied - and never be broken, bettering Huinker’s previous single-game school record of 280 pins. The Indian senior furthered his historic evening on the lanes by rolling a new single-series record of 516 pins in his two head-to-head games Friday, improving upon his own previous program standard of 492 pins.

The Waukon boys basketball team got its 2022-2023 season off to a busy but slower start early last week, playing in back-to-back games to begin the week. The Indians opened their campaign falling to a young but experienced MFL/MarMac squad, 73-33, at home Monday, November 28 before suffering a similar fate, 72-56, in their first road test of the season, Tuesday, November 29 at Sumner-Fredericksburg.

The Indians were next scheduled to play Monticello at Upper Iowa University in Fayette Monday, December 5, but had that game postponed by winter weather to an unknown rescheduled date as of yet. They will next open their Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) schedule Friday, December 9 at Crestwood in a girl/boy quadrangular. The Tribe will then host New Hampton in another NEIC girl/boy match-up Tuesday, December 13 before doing likewise with Waverly-Shell Rock Friday, December 16 and then playing North Butler at Upper Iowa University in Fayette Saturday, December 17.

Tribe’s second-leading scorer Kris Spiegler guides Golden Eagles past her alma mater

The Waukon girls basketball team had a busy early part of this past week for its only competition of the week, ending up on the short end of back-to-back nights of results in non-conference action. The Lady Indians had a Monday, November 28 road contest at MFL/MarMac ripped away at the very final buzzer in a 73-70 double overtime heartbreaker against the Bulldogs before having one of the best Waukon girls basketball players in program history return to her alma mater as a head coach Tuesday, November 29 and have her Class 3A 15th-rated Dubuque Wahlert squad hand the bucket Tribe a 68-49 defeat.

Hawkeye RedTail Softball head coach Courtney Calkins has announced the signing of Elyse Rissman to the 2023-2024 recruiting class at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo. Rissman is the daughter of Colby Rissman and Nikki Wagner (pictured in the submitted photo above) and attends Crestwood High School in Cresco. She is the granddaughter of Wayne and Debbie Rissman of Waukon, and she plans on studying Criminal Justice at Hawkeye Community College.

“I am excited to add Elyse to our first-ever recruiting class,” Calkins said. “She is the type of player who strives for excellence. I think she will help build the right type of culture here. She is a hard worker and is wanting to constantly get better. She is going to push herself and her teammates to be the best they can be.”

The 2022 Waukon football season rode a bit of a rollercoaster during this most recent fall campaign that ended up at a 6-4 season record, and just like any such ride that ultimately comes to an end too soon, there were plenty of thrills provided along the way. That end came short of a sixth consecutive trip to every team’s ultimate destination of playing in the UNI-Dome at season’s end, but before that conclusion the grid Tribe played its way to a fifth consecutive undefeated Class 2A District Championship and extended a qualifying streak for the Class 2A State Play-Offs to a sixth consecutive season as well.