Friday Flashback: Knights, VW to state

Note: This week’s Friday Flashback goes back to late May, 2011, when the Lady Knights made a return trip to the softball state semifinals and a pair of Van Wert track and field athletes earned spots at the state track meet. Below is the story as it appeared on the VW independent Sports page.

Van Wert independent sports

It was a good weekend for local athletes, with Crestview’s softball team earning its third trip to State in four years with a 7-2 victory over Fremont St. Joseph during the Division IV regional final at Findlay on Saturday.

Danica Hicks led the Crestview offense with a home run and a single, while the Knights’ other Maddie — Etzler — also had a home run, and Taylor Springer and Preston doubled.

Crestview will play its state semifinal game Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Firestone Stadium in Akron against Columbiana.

Also Saturday, Van Wert’s Sydney Riethman and Jared Fleming earned berths in the Division II State Track Meet during regional competition in Lexington.

Riethman won the regional championship in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 4 1/2 inches, while Fleming took second place in the 1600-meter run in a time of 4:16.46.

The Cougar girls were 12th overall out of 42 teams, while the boys finished in 16th place out of 43 teams.

Both Riethman and Fleming will compete on Saturday at Jesse Owens Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus.