The cross country team continued their season at the Pflugerville Invitational Friday, Sept. 7 with strong showings across multiple races.

The varsity boys placed fourth overall out of the 18 teams competing, continuing their streak of top five placements. The race also featured impressive individual finishes in the 5K, with Pablo Lomeli ‘21 crossing the line in fourth, followed by Nima Ashtari ‘20 in sixth.

The key takeaway of the varsity race was Lomeli’s performance, which resulted in a new Westwood record of 15 minutes and 38 seconds, along with a personal best that marks Lomeli as top ranked sophomore in Texas. The team also achieved other personal bests, with Ashtari clocking in at 15 minutes and 57 seconds, followed by Coleman Hewett ‘19 at 17 minutes and 11 seconds.

“I’m really proud of myself, but I honestly expected it considering the amount of training I put in over the summer,” Lomeli said, referring to his record-setting effort.

The JV boys were also able to celebrate, this time with a first place team finish. The Warriors secured several spots in the top 10, including Neil Panwalker ‘21, Aryan Patel ‘19, and Ben Farrugia ‘21, who finished second, third, and sixth respectively.

“I think we ran really hard, we had the potential, and it’s about time we executed,” Farrugia said.

Adam Tomsio ‘19 shared this sentiment.

“I feel like we deserved it. We’ve been training really hard, and we have a lot of talented JV runners trying to make it up to varsity,” Tomsio said.

Both teams will look to continue gaining confidence through similar finishes as the season progresses. The Warriors will resume racing on Saturday, Sept. 15 at the Annual Mesquite Run in Jarrell, Texas.