Sports

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.

The Kee volleyball team had its 2025 season brought to a close Monday, October 20 in the opening round of Class 1A Regional Tournament play when the Lady Hawks traveled to Edgewood-Colesburg. With that host Viking squad featuring a 6’2” middle hitter that posed her own challenges for the Hawks at the net, Edgewood-Colesburg proved to be much more than just a single tall player as one of its other hitters blasted away for 19 kills of her own in leading the sweeping charge of a Kee match defeat in three sets by scores of 7-25, 4-25 and 10-25 to bring the Hawks’ fall campaign to a close without a match victory to their credit.

With the match win, Edgewood-Colesburg advanced on to host Starmont Wednesday, October 22. The Vikings also won that regional match, sweeping the visiting Stars by scores of 25-10, 25-16 and 25-13 to advance further on to the Monday, October 27 regional semifinals at and against fifth-rated Dunkerton.

Hawk senior will compete among Class 1A’s distance elite for fourth time this Saturday

The bittersweetness of each year’s State Qualifying Meet that could mean the abrupt end or joyful extension of the high school cross country season resulted in the Kee boys cross country team experiencing both of those to some degree when the Hawks competed in the field of 14 scored teams at the Class 1A State Qualifier hosted by Starmont High School Thursday, October 23. A top-two finish in the meet’s team standings or a top-10 result among individual runners is required at the meet to continue a season on to every team’s or runner’s ultimate destination of advancement to the Class 1A State Meet being held this Saturday, November 1 in Fort Dodge.

The Kee volleyball team brought its regular season to a close this past week with two final Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) dual matches, still battling for its first match win of the season right up to the very end. The Hawk netters first wrapped up their home schedule for this fall season, falling to Turkey Valley in three sets Tuesday, October 14 by scores of 15-25, 8-25 and 14-25, and then brought their regular season to a close with a final match at West Central Thursday, October 16, coming within the minimum two points of a set win on each side of a wider gap in falling in three sets once again, by scores of 27-29, 18-25 and 23-25.

The Hawks were scheduled to begin Class 1A Regional Tournament play Monday, October 20 at and against Edgewood-Colesburg. Details of that match will be printed in the October 29 edition of The Standard.

Emma O’Neill is All-Conference repeat; Davis, Johnson, Johanningmeier earn first All-Conference honors

The first-ever competition in the Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet was not the only firsts for the Waukon girls cross country team at that meet, as the Lady Indians made a strong first impression at their new conference meet hosted in Elkader Thursday, October 16. That first impression not only came in the form of a first-place team championship for the Lady Tribe distance dandies but also included the meet’s individual championship first-place finishers further complemented by a runner-up individual finish for a one-two sweep of the top-two individual placewinnings and six total All-Conference finishes within the top-20 individuals that fueled the Indians to a team title 41 points that topped both the overall and Large School team standings.

Garner Lange repeats All-Conference honors; Knox, Stock, Cahalan and Keeling finish All-Conference

Competing in their first-ever Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet as one of three new members of that conference this season, the Waukon boys cross country team made a strong introduction to its UIC peers by winning the team championship at the Thursday, October 16 event held at Elkader and hosted by Postville. Fueled by six runners finishing in the All-Conference top-20 that were headlined by an All-Conference runner-up finish, the Indians topped both the overall team scoring and the Large School team scoring that the meet was further broken down into between the Large School and Small School divisions of the conference.

The Kee cross country team competed in its final meet prior to competing for further extension of its season, as the Hawks took part in their annual Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet that included some new faces this year in the expanded UIC field. That expansion allowed for not only an overall meet result, which saw Kee’s varsity boys finish seventh in that overall nine-team field, but also broke the meet down into Large School and Small School results, where the Hawks finished third out of four Small School teams, all behind the fourth consecutive All-Conference finish earned by senior Justin Wagner within the overall meet’s top-20 individuals.

The Hawks are next scheduled to compete in their Class 1A State Qualifying Meet scheduled for Thursday, October 23, beginning at 4 p.m. Further details of that postseason possibility are printed in the Wednesday, October 22, 2025 edition of the Standard.

Looking to get back on the winning track after suffering its first Class 2A District 3 loss a week earlier to what appears to be this season’s District 3 champion, the Waukon football team was looking to also further solidify its State Play-Off position when the Indians hosted a New Hampton squad Friday, October 10 that has yet to win a game in District 3 play this season and has just one win to its credit so far this fall. Focusing more on establishing a ball control type of offense, the Indians compiled a 363-115 advantage in total offensive yards during the contest and came within the final 10 seconds of the ballgame of pitching a shut-out on the way to a 36-7 victory that boosted the grid Tribe into a tie for second place in the Class 2A District 3 standings with just one game remaining on this season’s regular season schedule, and that game being played against the Crestwood team the Indians now share that second-place district standing with.

In its only competition of the week, the Waukon volleyball team hosted three other Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) teams in a quadrangular event Tuesday, October 7, with that new UIC quadrangular format for this year featuring two teams from the Large School division (the host Indians and Crestwood in Tuesday’s match) taking on two teams from the Small School division (Postville and Kee). Both the Indians and Crestwood swept through their two Small School opponents, with the Lady Indians doing so by scores of 25-10 and 25-17 over Postville in the evening’s opening match and by scores of 25-14 and 25-7 over Kee in the nightcap.

Holding an overall season record of 24-6 that includes a mark of 8-1 in UIC play, the Indians were next scheduled to play at MFL/MarMac Tuesday, October 14 and at South Winneshiek Thursday, October 16. They will then prepare for their Class 3A Regional Tournament scheduled for Tuesday, October 21 at and against Anamosa.