Area athletes compete keep their seasons going

TRACK FINDLAY – There's just one more stop on the long road from the beginning of the track season to the state meet in Columbus and local and area athletes will be looking to make the most of that stop when they compete in regional competition this week.Findlay and Northwest Ohio's other two Division I schools – Toledo Whitmer and Perrysburg – are grouped with schools from the Central and Southwest Districts in a three-stage regional qualification format that started with preliminary competition on May 19 at Huber Heights Wayne High School. The regional semifinals are Thursday, with finals set for Saturday.A number of Findlay High athletes advanced from the May 19 prelims, including Soni Hines and Carter Imke in the boys 100-meter dash and Tyler Strabley in the boys 800.On the girls side, Lexie Steffen advanced in the100 hurdles, Josey Weihrauch in the 400, and Natatlie Gutman in the 800. Gutman posted the third fastest qualifying time – 2:18.60 – in a competitive race where just .58 of a second separated the top five runners.With this year's expansion from three to five divisions, area track athletes will be traveling to a number of regional locations.Most area schools will be competing in the Division V regional meet Thursday and Saturday at Fostoria, including Arcadia, Ada, Columbus Grove, Pandora-Gilboa, Cory-Rawson, McComb, North Baltimore, Riverdale, Hopewell-Loudon and the Van Buren girls and the Patrick Henry boys.Arlington, Carey and Vanlue will be heading east and joining some West Central and Northeast District schools for a Division V regional meet at Cuyahoga Heights.Division III schools Ottawa-Glandorf, Upper Sandusky and Fostoria (boys) will be competing Thursday and Saturday at Piqua.Marion Harding will host a Division IV regional meet today and Friday. Liberty-Benton, Bluffton and Elmwood will be heading there, along with the boys teams from Riverdale and Van Buren and the girls teams from Patrick Henry and Fostoria.In all regional meets, the top four placers in each event and the top four relay teams will earn automatic bids to the state meet in Columbus. When all regional competition is complete, results from across the state will determine two at-large bids in every event in every division to complete the state brackets. Baseball FINDLAY – Findlay High's baseball team ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak and the Trojans will be carrying that momentum into postseason play when they host Toledo Whitmer today in a Division I district tournament game at Woody Curlis Field.Findlay started its current 7-0 run with a 6-3 win over Anthony Wayne, followed that with a 6-2 victory over Bowling Green, and then swept Whitmer 8-1 and 6-5 in Northern Lakes League play.Win No. 5 in the streak was a 9-3 decision over Elmwood, and a 6-2 win over Sylvania Southview clinched for Findlay a share of the NLL Buckeye Division championship. Anthony Wayne and Perrysburg also went 11-3 in NLL games to earn a piece of the crown as well.Findlay ended regular season play with an 8-4 win over Oak Harbor. That gave the Trojans a 19-7 record and a second straight 19-win season under third-year head coach Jordan Nell.Whitmer enters today's game with a 14-10 record.Today's winner advances to Friday's district final at Bob Cene Park in Struthers to take on either No. 5-seeded Massillon Jackson (17-5) or 15th-seeded Lorain (8-18).Three area teams will be in action at today's Division VI district tournament at the Marathon Diamonds. Northern 10 Conference champion Carey (22-3) will take on N10 runner-up Seneca East (17-6) in the first game, and Van Buren (16-11) and Elmwood (11-11), two teams that tied for third place in the Blanchard Valley Conference standings, meet in game two. The district final is Friday at 5 p.m.Columbus Grove plays Marion Local at Upper Scioto Valley High School and Patrick Henry takes on Ayersville at Napoleon in two other Division VI district matchups. In Division IV, Ottawa-Glandorf and Lake square off at Archbold.Division VII district tournaments are on tap for Thursday. Two games will be held at Findlay High's Woody Curlis Field, with McComb taking on Pandora-Gilboa at 2 p.m. and New Riegel playing Arcadia at 5 p.m.Over at Patrick Henry, Leipsic and Kalida will go head to head at 2 p.m., with Miller City facing Holgate in the 5 p.m. second game. LEIPSIC 11ARLINGTON 0LEIPSIC – Three Leipsic pitchers combined on a five-inning no-hitter on Tuesday and the Vikings wrapped up sole possession of second place in the Blanchard Valley Conference baseball standings with an 11-0 win over Arlington.Colin Niese started and went the first two innings. Aaron Hazelton pitched the third and fourth innings, and Mill Paniaqua closed it down with a 1-2-3 inning of relief. The three pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts.Only two Arlington players reached base, one after being hit by a pitch and another on Leipsic's lone error of the game.Hazelton also had two hits and drove in a run, while Julian Zuniga had two singles, two RBI and scored twice. Avery Paris, John Dewar, and Lane Vieira added RBI singles for the Vikings, who finished BVC play with an 8-2 league record. Had Leipsic lost the game, the Vikings would have ended up sharing second place with Van Buren (16-11, 7-3 BVC), McComb (13-11, 7-3 BVC) and Elmwood (12-13, 7-3 BVC).Arlington finished up 4-21 overall, 2-8 in the BVC.Leipsic returns to the diamond on Thursday when the Vikings (13-10) take on Putnam County League rival Kalida (13-5) at 2 p.m. in a Division VII district semifinal game at Patrick Henry's Garrold Parratt Field. Miller City and Holgate will meet at 5 p.m., with the winners returning Friday at 5 p.m. for the district championship.Arlington 000 00—0 0 4Leipsic 052 4x—11 10 1WP—Niese. LP—Jones. TOP HITTERS: (Leip) Paris 1B, RBI; Hazelton 2-1B, RBI; Dewar 1B, RBI; Camareno 2B; Zuniga 2-1B, 2 RBI; Vieira 1B, RBI. H-LOUDON 9MCCOMB 5MCCOMB – Hopewell-Loudon used a five-run rally in the fifth inning to crate the cushion it needed to beat McComb 9-5 in prep baseball action.Austin Smith and Braylon Ramirez had a pair of base hits for Hopewell-Loudon (20-7-1). Camden Swain tripled and drove in three runs for McComb (14-12-2), which will face Pandora-Gilboa Thursday at 2 p.m. in a Division VII district semifinal game at Findlay High.H-Loudon 102 150 0—9 9 1McComb 002 003 0—5 7 2WP—Hoover. LP—Welty. TOP HITTERS: (H-L) Colatruglio 1B, RBI; Smith 2-1B, 2 RBI; Frankart 2B, RBI; Brickman 1B, RBI; Ellis 1B, 2 RBI; Ramirez 2-1B, RBI. (McC) Smith 2B; Wartgow 1B, RBI; Swain 3B, 3 RBI. Softball FINDLAY – Ada reached the regional softball finals last year and will be looking to get that far – or further – again.The next step on that journey comes today when the Bulldogs face Danville in the second of two Division VI regional semifinal games at Bellefontaine. New Madison Tri-Village and Fayetteville Perry meet in the first game, with the regional final Friday at 5 p.m.In other regional softball matchups, Patrick Henry goes up against Lincolnview in a Division VI semifinal at Bowling Green State University. Hardin Northern plays South Charleston Southeastern and New Riegel squares off with Covington in Division VII games at Wapakoneta.Findlay is hosting a Division VII regional with Gibsonburg playing Mohawk at 2 p.m. today and Ayersville taking on Edgerton at 5 p.m. at Babcock Field. ScheduleWednesday's EventsBaseballDIVISION IToledo Whitmer at Findlay, 5 p.m. DIVISION IVAT ARCHBOLDOttawa-Glandorf vs. Lake at Archbold DIVISION VIAT MARATHON DIAMONDSCarey vs. Seneca East, 2 p.m.Van Buren vs. Elmwood, 4:30 p.m.AT USVMarion Local vs. Columbus Grove, 2 p.m.AT NAPOLEONPatrick Henry vs. Ayersville, at Napoleon SoftballOHSAA REGIONALDIVISION VIAT BGSUMargaretta vs. Minster, 2 p.m.Patrick Henry vs. Lincolnview, 5 p.m.Winners meet Friday, 5 p.m. for regional titleAT BELLEFONTAINETri-Village vs. Fayetteville Perry, 2 p.m.Ada vs. Danville, 5 p.m.Winners meet Friday, 5 p.m. for regional titleDIVISION VIIAT WAPAKONETASouth Charleston Southeastern vs. Hardin Northern, 2 p.m.New Riegel vs. Covington, 4:30 p.m.Winners meet Friday, 5 p.m. for regional titleAT FINDLAY HIGHGibsonburg vs. Mohawk, 2 p.m.Ayersville vs. Edgerton, 5 p.m.Winners meet Friday, 5 p.m. for regional title Track & FieldDIVISION IVRegional meet at Marion Harding