It’s a new year with the same spectacular results for Westgate’s track and field team.

A week ago, coach Philip Guidry’s Tigers traveled to Baton Rouge for the LSU High School Indoor Classic.

Mekhi Boutte ran a 7.04 in the preliminary round of the 60-meter dash and concluded with a personal record of 6.95 in the finals. He placed second in the event and was ranked 12th in the nation at that time.

Boutte took things to a higher level this past weekend at the Carl Lewis High School Invitational, which was held at the University of Houston. The senior set another PR in the 60-meters with a 6.91, the third-fastest time in the nation.

He didn’t stop there.

At LSU, he ran a leg on the 4 X 200 relay team along with Dedrick Latulas, Derek Kately and Amare’ Porter.

“We are experimenting with new pieces in the 4 X 200 and still placed fifth overall and are currently third in the state,” Guidry said.

Westgate’s 4 X 200 team has two holdovers in Boutte and Latulas from last year’s Class 4A outdoor state championship team. The Tigers placed first in the state in the 4 X 200 and 4 x 400 at the outdoor meet with Boutte also running in the latter event.

He has been an integral part of Westgate’s back-to-back outdoor state championship teams. As a sophomore, he ran on the first-place 4 X 100 and 4 X 400 relay.

Boutte also placed third in the 200-meters at last year’s outdoor state meet.

“Mekhi now has many schools recruiting him,” Guidry said.

Latulas placed fourth in the triple jump in Houston, qualifying him to compete along with Boutte at the New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston on March 10-12.

Jonah Byrom set a new PR with a 5:10 in the 1,600-meters in Baton Rouge.