Friendswood High School is one of the most consistent teams in the country, and had won 15 consecutive medium state championships in Texas. They reached nationals twice, once in 2001 (as the "Texas B team"), and again in 2004, when they beat the large school champion, Irving Nimitz, by nearly 1000 points. That year they went on to place 7th at Nationals. In 1996, the Mustangs put up a score of 47,619, losing only to 5A school J. Frank Dobie. It would remain the highest score ever by a 4A team until 2008.
In 1998, Friendswood caused a major scare when they were narrowly defeated by James E. Taylor (47,843 for Taylor to 47,218 for Friendswood). 2002 saw the Mustangs again get close, finishing fourth in the entire state of Texas (Lubbock won 47,740; Dobie was second with 47,381; Keller was third with 47,303 and Friendswood was fourth with 47,250). 2003 saw the Mustangs narrowly edge out 5A school Keller by just a few hundred points for second in all of Texas, but ended up losing to Dobie.
In the 2004 State Championship, Friendswood walked in with a score 43,545. This was good enough to enter state as the top school in 4A, but was behind some Large Schools. Nimitz, the odds on favorite in the Large Schools, walked in with the overall score of 46,549 (a lead of 3,004 points). However, the state competitions had a huge disparity in subjective scoring (the Small/Medium meet having high scores, and the Large schools having lower scores, especially in Essay). The result saw Nimitz win the 5A, but not the State Championship. The result caused considerable controversy as Friendswood would go on to Nationals, and subsequently finish seventh with a score of 46,477, the worst finish for a Texas team at the national competition.
In 2007, Friendswood began showing the first signs of strain, as Friendswood did not go into state as the leading 4A school. In that year, Frisco lead all Texas 4A schools after Round 2. However, at state, Frisco was no match for Friendswood, and Friendswood secured their 15th straight Medium School Championship. Friendswood not only dodged a close call, but nearly took the state's nationals seat from Plano Senior, who scored 46,181 points, compared to Friendswood's 46,023.
At the 2008 regional, Friendswood lost for the first time to the Seven Lakes team by over 1000 points. At the Medium School state championships, Friendswood was defeated by Seven Lakes and New Caney and finished third, ending a run of 15 straight Medium state championships.
