WESTBY — Last Tuesday the Hillsboro cross country team opened the 2013 season at the Ken Trott Westby Invitational.

Led by junior medalist Michaela Bach, the Hillsboro girls placed fourth out of eight teams with 75 team points. Westby easily won the team title with a score of 23.

Bach finished fifth in a time of 19:34.1 to lead the Lady Tigers.

Fellow junior Adrianna Reese just missed out on a top-10 finish and medalist honors, placing 11th in 20:49.5.
Junior Macey Brown finished 22nd (22:23.2), sophomore Breanna Beaver placed 25th (22:46.9) and sophomore Destiny Shore finished 33rd (23:44.8).

On the boys’ side, 2012 state qualifiers Logan Rohn and Noah Mayberry led the Hillsboro boys to a fifth place team finish with 109 points.

The Westby boys made it a team sweep, out-pointing Cochrane–Fountain City 56–71.

Rohn placed fourth with a time of 17:53.2. Mayberry finished sixth at 18:51.1. Both earned medalist honors.

Hillsboro freshman Zach O’Hair was the second fastest freshman in the entire race, placing 27th in 21:32.3.

Friday afternoon the Tigers traveled to Cashton for the Cashton Invitational.

Led by Mayberry’s third-place finish (17:39) the Hillsboro boys placed fourth in the 11-team event.

Rohn placed 16th (19:32).

On the girls side, Reese paced the Lady Tigers with a 17th place finish (18:41). Beaver finished 19th and Bach was 20th.

“I was really happy with how Friday went,” said Hillsboro coach Ben Leis. “We had a very tough practice the day before, but many of our runners cut a lot of time off from the Westby Invite. I was very pleased with how we ran.”

Hillsboro returns to action Thursday at Viroqua.