Sports

The Waukon girls wrestling team opened its 2025-2026 season on a rather large stage against some rather large schools, competing in the Decorah Tournament that featured 16 teams and nearly 190 wrestlers Saturday, November 22. The Indians had 17 young ladies competing in the season-opening event and had 10 of them earn top-six placewinnings, including one runner-up result and a pair of third-place finishes, to help fuel the mat Tribe to a fourth-place team finish with 157 points, just one point behind third-place Ottumwa, which had 19 wrestlers competing. Cedar Falls ended up winning the tournament with a whopping 537 team points but had the advantage of 40 wrestlers competing in the event, more than twice as many as any other squad.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.

The Waukon girls wrestling program will return an abundance of familiarity for the 2025-2026 season, as a dozen varsity veterans return to the mat for this winter’s campaign from last season’s squad. The newest face around the wrestling room for the mat Tribe this season will sit atop the coaching totem pole, as Kevin Johnson will assume the role of head coach for the Lady Indian program this winter, taking over that role previously held by Dani Bucknell for the last several seasons.

The Lady Indians are scheduled to get their 2025-2026 campaign underway this Saturday, November 22 at the Decorah Tournament. They will then return to the mat Tuesday, December 2 for a home quadrangular against MFL/MarMac, Postville and Tripoli before taking part in the large, two-day Dan Gable Donnybrook Tournament held at Xtream Arena in Coralville Thursday and Friday, December 4 and 5.

In a change for this season made by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, the 2025-2026 high school girls bowling campaign got off to an earlier start than in years past, including for the Waukon girls squad with its first match early last week. However, in not much of a change from recent success levels, the Lady Indians got that earlier start to the season off on a positive note, pulling out a 2013-2004 victory at Sumner-Fredericksburg Tuesday, November 11.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.

by Jennifer Bissell

Baseball has always been in John Papp’s blood. A native of the Milwaukee, WI area, Papp played collegiate baseball before earning his MBA. Since moving to the Waukon area with his wife, the former Elizabeth Dehli of the Harpers Ferry area, Papp has been involved in youth athletics with his boys.

That gave him the idea of the unique way he could give back to the community and still be involved in the sport he loves.

Papp recently opened Gap To Gap, an indoor training facility for baseball, softball and golf athletes to improve their game. Located at 219 Highway 9, just south of Waukon, the facility offers a large space for local athletes to get their practice swings in, as well as for teams to hold practices at any time of the year.

Having broken a five-year drought in appearances as a team at the Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships last season with a 12th-place finish at the Class 2A State Meet, the Waukon girls cross country team took another giant leap forward at this fall’s season grand finale, perhaps surpassing even their own expectations when they brought home this year’s State Runner-Up trophy. Being ranked seventh among this season’s Class 2A distance elite heading into the Friday, October 31 Class 2A State Meet held at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge, the Lady Indians continued their season trend of finishing no lower than third at any of their meets and took full advantage of an opportunity to showcase their entire team effort that has fueled that trend, even at the highest level of competition.

The end to one of the most consistent and successful individual careers in the recent history of Kee boys cross country came to a close this past weekend where every Iowa high school cross country athlete strives to be, as Hawk senior Justin Wagner brought Kee’s 2025 season and his high school cross country career to completion competing in his fourth consecutive Class 1A State Meet, held Saturday, November 1 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge.

Competing for the fourth consecutive season among Class 1A’s distance-running elite, Wagner finished just beyond the top-20 individuals in that season grand finale, repeating his 21st-place finish that he had also achieved last season. This year’s near-miss of that top-20 in that Class 1A field of 152 runners came in a time of 17:00.2, the Hawk senior’s best time of this season and just a handful of seconds beyond his career-best time he achieved at last season’s State Meet.

The Waukon football team had its 2025 season brought to a close in the second round of the Class 2A State Play-Offs in a Halloween Night match-up at fifth-rated Alburnett Friday, October 31. The trick was trying to stop Class 2A’s leading rusher, Pirate junior Laken Caves, and that certainly ended up being no treat as the Pirate speedster racked up 267 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in leading his squad to a 34-16 win over the Indians for an end to their fall grid campaign.

Another trip to the Class 2A State Cross Country Meet resulted in another top-10 team finish for the Waukon boys cross country team, as the 2025 version of that program consistency made it a half-dozen consecutive high-end finishes for the distance Tribe with its sixth-place team finish among the Class 2A elite field of 15 scored teams competing in this season’s grand finale Friday, October 31 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course near Fort Dodge. Coming into Friday’s State Meet ranked eighth, and having to replace three runners from last season’s seventh-place State Meet team finish, the Indians improved on both of those aspects with their sixth-place finish that was a dozen points away from a top-five team finish.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition or print edition by clicking here.

Qualifying for the Class 2A State Play-Offs for the ninth consecutive season, the 5-3 Waukon football team played host to a Bellevue team in the opening round of that play-off series Friday, October 24 that boasted a 7-1 season record and as high as a number-four ranking among Class 2A teams, all fueled by an air attack that led all teams across the state of Iowa with an average of 312 passing yards per game. Undaunted by those high-end numbers, the football Indians grounded that Comet air attack to its second lowest yardage total of the season and also ground out a 34-13 triumph in that Class 2A Play-Off opener, utilizing a 4-0 advantage in turnovers and racking up 410 yards of offense to help limit Bellevue to its lowest point total of the season while helping earn themselves advancement further down that postseason path.

The Waukon volleyball team had its 2025 season brought to a close just as its postseason was getting underway, as the Lady Indians (26-6) traveled to 14th-rated Anamosa (24-11) Tuesday, October 21 for the opening round of Class 3A Region 8 Tournament play. Despite some competitive surges that saw the net Tribe match the host Raiders blow for blow throughout most of the night, Anamosa ended up pulling away in each of the match’s three sets to end up with a sweeping end to the Indians’ season in three sets that proved to be closer and closer as the night wore on, by scores of 16-25, 17-25 and 19-25.