Singles players Leo Sontag and Ty Carey each placed sixth in their brackets Thursday at the Hillsboro Invitational tennis tournament, but the Trojans finished eighth out of eight teams.

In the No. 1 singles bracket, Sontag lost in the opening round to Grant Bellar of Conway Springs, 8-3. Sontag then defeated Jon Dahlsten of Smoky Valley, 8-2. In the fifth-place match, Zack Brashear defeated Sontag, 8-3.

In the No. 2 singles bracket, Ty Carey lost his opener to Logan Hughes of Trinity Catholic of Hutchinson, 8-2. He defeated Brandon Koch of Conway Springs, 8-2, but lost in the fifth-place match against Riley O’Neal of Chapman, 8-3.

“Leo and Ty both played well enough to earn one win each in singles and were competitive in their other matches, but also must develop more consistency,” coach Stuart Holmes said.

The No. 1 doubles team of River Cecil and Josh Funk was 0-3 on the day, placing eighth. Hillsboro did not have a No. 2 doubles team.

“Our guys continue to improve as Josh and River made some nice plays but were not as consistent as their opponents, which takes time to develop,” Holmes said.

April 8 at Smoky Valley

Sontag placed fourth out of 16 players April 8 at the Ron Dahlsten Tennis Classic at Smoky Valley. He started with an 8-5 victory over Jarod Meier of Smoky Valley, then defeated Matt Loomis of Pratt, 8-1. He lost to Gabe Johnson of Abilene in the semifinals, 8-2, then lost to Marcel Rimrodt of Concordia in the third-place match, 8-2.

“Leo did a nice job of continuing to get his serve in on a windy day,” Holmes said. “He especially played a good match in the semifinals, and there were a lot of deuce games, so the match was closer than the 8-2 score might indicate.”

Cecil went 0-4 in the singles bracket, and the doubles team of Carey and Funk were 0-3.

Hillsboro’s next tournament is Thursday at Circle.