Sports News

Despite first-game jitters that stayed with the Burros into the second half, Hillsboro won its first game of the 2007-2008 girls basketball season, defeating Central Cass, 56-42, Tuesday night in the Events Center.

The Evenson twins — Joelle and Maggie — each scored 15 points in the non-conference victory.

“It wasn’t pretty, but I was happy with the effort,” said the Burro coach Kyle Morehart.

Trailing 38-36 after three quarters, the Burros ran away with the game in the final quarter, out-scoring the Squirrels, 20-4, in the final 8  minutes of play.

“It took us two and a half quarters to get going,” added Morehart. “I felt much better in the fourth quarter, we finally opened things up in the open court.” (more…)

Andy Leraas and the Minot State University Beavers played the North Dakota State University Bison earlier this month in Fargo.
The Bison roughed up the Beavers, 117-84.
Leraas, a former Burro, scored 6 points.
The 6 ft. 5 in. power forward with the Beavers was an all-state basketball player in high school for the Burros and coach Elliot Rotvold.
Leraas and the MSU beavers play the University of North Dakota Sioux in Grand Forks on Dec. 8. The Minot college team plays at Mayville State Feb. 15.  (more…)

Returning three starters from last year’s 16-7 team, the Hillsboro Burro girls basketball team, which shared the District 3 regular season title last year with Hatton-Northwood and Dakota Prairie, are given an outside shot at the title this year.

The recently-published Miss Hoopster pre-season poll has the Burros trailing Dakota Prairie, Hatton-Northwood and Central Valley.

Hillsboro coach Kyle Morehart isn’t too concerned with the magazine’s annual pre-season picks.

He’s confident his team will be in the mix at the end of the season.  (more…)

Two shorthanded wrestling teams made short work of their opening season dual Tuesday.
Thanks to three pins and three forfeits in their favor, the visiting Hillsboro Burros edged MayPortCG 36-30. The Patriots settled for three pins and two forfeits. There were no matches at 125, 152 and 171 pounds.
“We knew it would be a quick dual,” said Burro coach Mark McLean of the 30-minute contest. “We were both open in a few weight classes. We anticipated a pretty close contest because of how we matched up.”  (more…)

Two Hillsboro Burro volleyball players have been named to the all-District 3 volleyball team.
Junior  Ashley Doeden, Hillsboro’s 6 ft. middle hitter, and freshman Mikkaela Toenies, another front line player for the Burros, were selected this week to the all district team.
Katrina Meyer, senior outside hitter, was named to the honorable mention all-district team.
Twelve District 3 players were named to the elite first team.
Brittany Reinke, Thompson, was named the district’s outstanding senior.

Hillsboro’s Andrew Grothmann and Bill Breen were named this week to the N.D. 9-man All-State football team.
Grothmann, a junior, was named to the first team all-state defensive unit at linebacker.
The 6-1 210 lb. junior, an anchor on defense, was the Burros’ leading rusher this year on offense, pounding out 1,264 yards. He was the leading scorer on the team with 23 touchdowns.
Breen was named to the first team all-state offensive line. Breen, a junior, was also a two-way starter for coach Mark Rerick and the Burros.

Call ‘em young but they’re not new to the pressures of varsity competition.

Hillsboro’s varsity wrestling team has 11 athletes who are freshmen and younger. Only seven boys on the 2007-08 roster are sophomores or older.

Don’t let the youthfulness fool you, warns head coach Eric Ptacek. The youngsters already have two or three years of varsity mat time, he added.  (more…)

A year after winning the Region 2 title and the state championship 11 days later, Hillsboro was denied a return trip to the state classic when the Burros were defeated in the first round of this year’s regional volleyball tournament.
Eclipsed from the spotlight by Cavalier Monday at Grafton, the defending Class B volleyball champion’s run at fame ended unceremoniously Monday afternoon in a 3-1 loss to the Tornadoes.
Hillsboro’s season ended at 22-14. (more…)

The No. 1 seed in this week’s District 3 girls volleyball tournament in Hillsboro will be the No. 3 seed in next week’s Region 2 tourney in Grafton.

The Hillsboro Burros, the regular season champs in District 3 and seeded No. 1 in the district tournament played this week in Hillsboro, were regulated to the consolation bracket when they were beaten by Central Valley, 3-0, Monday night at the Events Center.

The Burros bounced back Tuesday night, beating Griggs County Central, 3-0. The win gave the Burros an automatic bid in the Region 2 tournament starting Monday in Grafton. (more…)

Hillsboro’s Burros were instructed all year they had to execute and outwork every opponent in every game.

“We’re an average team if we don’t,” explained coach Mark Rerick.

The game plan stressing a work ethic that proved unrivaled in its first 10 games, all won by the Burros, Hillsboro abandoned the winning formula Saturday at Napoleon in a 44-19 loss to the Imperials in the quarterfinal round of the state’s 9-man football playoffs.

The disappointing loss ended Hillsboro’s season at 10 wins and one loss.  (more…)