![Taking a breath as he raises his arm up and out of the water, sophomore Kaden Padilla swims the 500 freestyle at the UIL state meet on Feb. 21-22. Padilla placed 10th overall and second in the consolation final in the event, dropping two seconds. “My family was there, so being able to drop time for them was really special,” Padilla said. “It was awesome [finding out I advanced to the consolation finals]. I wasn’t expecting it, and I was very surprised. My parents being there definitely made me a lot happier knowing they got to see me swim in finals.” Photo by Skyler King.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/kaden-padilla.jpg)
![Throwing the ball, sophomore shortstop and third baseman Hudson Cuevas completes a play to first base at the scrimmage against Round Rock on Feb. 4. Installation of new turf on the fields has relocatedthe team to practicing on the grass fields and at a batting cage center off of Lakeline called D-Bat. “Our players have attacked this challenge,” Head Coach Ben Huffman said. “We’re just having to shift locations from a day to day basis. [But], the boys come out and wherever and whatever we’re doing they just try to get better every day.” Photo by Alyssa Fox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hudson-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Posing with their trophy, the varsity cheer team takes a picture following their sixth place performance at the Universal Cheerleading Associtation’s National High School Cheerleading Competition. This was the highest the team has placed in school history. “[Breaking the record] is like more than I could ask for, so I’m really proud of them,” Head Cheer Coach Nadira King said. “It’s so exciting because now they have the confidence and they’ve had a little taste of something good. I think that will be good for our future as a program.” Photo Courtesy of CPHS Cheer](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/cheer.jpg)
![As the support team sits and poses for a photo in the cafeteria with the counseling team they eagerly wait to start their day. "We [all] seem to be a team, I get up every day and there's days where I don't want to go to work today, but I'm thankful that I have a job and I'm blessed to have what I have," Christopherson said. Photo Courtesy of Julie Weltens.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/AF9E8470-10D7-4C91-BF28-EC8F86BAB66C-1200x852.jpeg)
![Officer Stephanie Cash is in her second year as an SRO at CPHS. “Seeing [students] grow over the years has been kind of cool,” Officer Cash said. “Freshmen that [are] all over the place and then in the next couple of years get a little more squared away and go to class and do work and start thinking about the future. Being a part of a student's growth is the best way to measure my success as an SRO.” Photo Courtesy of Cedar Park Police Department's PIO, Alicia Gallagher.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CPHS-SRO-900x1200.jpg)
![Three defenders try to stop senior point guard Hope Edwards before the ball leaves her hands. The girls basketball team faced Liberty Hill on Feb 21, losing 58-40. “[My season was] definitely bittersweet,” Edwards said. It's definitely sad [because] I'm gonna miss all my teammates, my coaches and just the whole CP environment.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/julia-128-1200x800.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
Thrusting her arm through the water towards her legs, a bright red sign appears in front of the wall ahead of her, letting her know she is on the 20th and final lap of the 500 freestyle. The sight of the sign gives her the motivation she needs to smoothly tuck into a flip turn and propel herself through the rest of the race. She finishes with one final stretch of her arm and looks back at the results, a smile breaking across her face when she sees that she has finally reached her long-time goal of swimming a sub five minute 500 freestyle.
Junior Lauren Lucas was on the swim team her freshmen year and is currently on the team in her junior year. Throughout the championship season, Lucas swam the 500 freestyle, the 200 freestyle, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a final time of 4:58.63. She also broke the school record for the 200 freestyle at regionals with a time of 1:51.18.
“I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.”
Lucas has been swimming competitively since she was 10 years old. In addition to the swim team practices, Lucas has eight to nine practices a week, amounting to about 22 hours, at Waterloo Swimming. Lucas said that she enjoys racing in the Individual Medley event, but her main stroke is freestyle.
“I’ve kind of come to appreciate the 200 free more,” Lucas said. “It’s kind of a sweet spot for me. It’s like this balance where you have to be gutsy and kind of aggressive with your pace, but also maintain your technique, [and] I kinda like that mix.”
Amidst the competition at regionals and state, Lucas said that she had a good relationship with her competitors and she did her best to give the swimmers next to her high-fives after they finished their events together.
“There is a lot of camaraderie,” Lucas said. “A lot of the girls you’ll see high-fiving each other after a race and it’s a very supportive environment, but also competitive. A bit of both.”
Lucas plans to swim in college and is currently in the middle of the recruiting process. This process includes calling the coaches of various colleges and learning about the colleges at recruiting visits later on in the year.
“I’m talking to a couple of different schools, and I’m excited to see how it turns out,” Lucas said. “[The calls] are very professional. It’s like a conversation that you continuously keep up with over the months, and you keep coaches updated, and then later in the spring they do recruiting visits, [but] I definitely want to go see the schools I’m looking at first [before deciding].”
Lucas medaled for the first time at the state meet, placing third in the 200 freestyle, and she said that her goal for her senior year is be first place in at least one event and earn a gold medal.
“Over the years I’ve learned that swimming is kind of like a game of its own and to play it you have to learn to love the process,” Lucas said. “What keeps you coming back to the pool and staring at a black tile line for 20 hours a week is the team. You come back for your teammates to keep up that relationship.”
