Competitors come together to commemorate final NEIC Track & Field Meet ...

Members of the girls and boys track and field teams from all five schools still in the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) came together for this group photo at the end of this year’s NEIC Meet hosted by Waukon High School Thursday, May 8. This 2024-2025 school year marks the end of the Northeast Iowa Conference, which started in 1920 as the state of Iowa’s first interscholastic conference. The NEIC had been a seven-team athletic conference since 1970, when Waukon joined the conference, and remained that way until Oelwein departed in 2022. Waverly-Shell Rock was voted out of the conference and ceased membership at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, with Waukon, New Hampton and Crestwood now joining the Upper Iowa Conference for the 2025-2026 school year, Charles City joining the North Central Conference this next school year as well, and Decorah and Waverly-Shell Rock remaining as independent schools without any conference affiliation for the upcoming school year.