![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
Swimming for Success
Boys and Girls Swim and Dive Teams are Awarded District Champs
Taking a deep breath, senior swim captain Ashley Poulsen participates in the 100 meter butterfly event at the district meet on Jan. 17. Both the swim and dive teams ranked first in the district, and are moving onto regionals. “It is exciting knowing we won districts because we are one step closer to state,” Poulsen said. “We are anxious about how regionals will go because we have been very close in years past. Last year the boys team lost first place and got second by half a point, so it will be an exciting meet coming up.”
January 23, 2020
The smell of chlorine in the air, shouts from coaches on the sidelines, water splashing up from the pools. After weeks of preparing, both the girls and boys dive and swim teams were named district champions on Jan. 17.
Preparing for districts included long workouts after Christmas break to up the team’s yardage and get back into shape, such as 20 x 200s, a physical and mental challenge because of the distance, according to senior swim captain Ashley Poulsen. Then, each teammate worked individually on what they needed to do for districts, some people did short, fast training, such as 10 x 100s, while others continued with the long workouts.
“[To prepare] for districts, we started tapering a little bit,” Poulsen said. “District is an important meet, but most people had a good idea of what they needed to do to make it to regionals and get us the win, which is what we did. Now that districts is over, we have two weeks of hard work to get everyone ready to swim at regionals, which is a faster meet and good competition.”
For junior swim captain Kaiya Wilkinson, being on the team can be stressful, but satisfying when her swim times improve.
“I think just the fact that when you swim, you can just forget about the world and it’s just you and your thoughts, although often sometimes I end up with a song stuck in my head,” Wilkinson said. “Then there are also races where [they are] so fast and you get up on the block with complete confidence knowing exactly what you need to do and not having to think at all, and sometimes that is nice too.”
Swimming isn’t all the team does, as they mess around at practice and meets, and hangout with each other at home or for pasta parties. Earlier in the year, the upperclassmen “kidnapped” the underclassmen and took them to breakfast.
“I am going to miss the people on the team most of all,” senior swim captain Cooper Gilkey said. “If I really want to I can always get back into the pool and continue practicing, it is the people that are being left behind. I have become close friends with a lot of teammates, and that sense of competition and camaraderie between us is what I will lose next year.”
The team has worked hard together, and the long morning practices at 7 a.m. have paid off.
“We knew we could do it, but I think we all felt really happy knowing it,” sophomore Chloë Martinez said. “We all had some really close races and it’s just a relief to know that we really made it.”
The teams have qualified for regionals, which is a prelims and finals meet being held on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The top sixteen from prelims move on to finals and from there the remaining two go to state.
“I am excited to see how everyone does, and there should be several exciting swims,” Poulsen said. “There will for sure be some close races, and some exciting moments for those who qualify for finals and then hopefully move on to state.”
