By Charles Vermont, Special to the Picayune

After the end of the Westlake’s inaugural rugby season, three of its players – Paul Brown, Evan Von Zur Muehlen and Connor McNally – were selected to play this summer with the Texas under-17 High Performance Team.  

After a series of weekend practices in different parts of the state, the squad traveled to Denver last weekend for the ninth annual Rocky Mountain Rugby Challenge All-Star Tournament and took second place after two days of intense rugby.  

The Texas team cruised to the top of its tournament bracket by crushing its opposition on Saturday. As scrum half, McNally directed the Texans’ attack that kept their opponents on the defensive.  

Brown played inside center and excited the crowd with a series of breakaway runs throughout the tournament. His try against Louisiana helped the Texans seal the lopsided win. 

Von Zur Muehlen played brilliantly as flanker throughout the tournament. His try and series of conversion and penalty kicks against Eastern Colorado helped earn him most valuable player honors in that match, and his consistently aggressive play landed him on the consensus all-tournament team.

The Texans fell to a powerful Wisconsin team in the finals