![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)
Ten Students Prepare for Weekend UIL Regionals
UIL Members Advance to Regionals, Share Experience
At UIL Districts, the UIL Journalism team had two students, freshman Tristan Hernandez and senior Deana Trautz, advance to Regionals.
April 12, 2019
Over the last weekend of March, members of the science, math, social studies, journalism and speech and debate teams competed in UIL at the district level at Cedar Park and other Leander ISD high schools. Out of these students’ 32 placements in the top six, there were eight first-place rankings and 18 advancements to Regionals that will take place this weekend.
Junior Kate Lee competed in Mathematics, Number Sense and Calculator, and placed second in all three events. To prepare for her contests, one of which involved mentally solving 80 questions in 10 minutes, Lee said their team captain, senior Josh Kolenbrander, taught her math tricks to help her improve her skills.
“I’ve always been interested in math and wanted to experience diversity in maths so I chose to compete in all three math events,” Lee said. “I am so excited for competition because I get to meet more teams that are more challenging which motivates me to study harder by going over a bunch of practice tests and a slideshow with math tricks.”
Third-year UIL competitor, senior Olivia Cantrell, competed and placed third in Poetry Interpretation, in which competitors are given the freedom of creating their own selection of poetry and then present it to a panel of judges in seven minutes. Cantrell said for this event, she is critiqued upon delivery, content, voice and presentation.
“It was really fun and was a good end to senior year,” said Cantrell. “We’ve been practicing a lot for this Regional meet by reading our piece over and over, and we will do the same tomorrow.”
While some students only compete in specific types of events, junior Erin Berry competed in Spelling and Social Studies, both of which she advanced to Regionals in. To prepare for Regionals, Berry said she has been reviewing the UIL Word Power packet that contains competition information and a list of vocabulary. She has also been reviewing speeches, legislation, court cases and required reading material for Social Studies.
“It was really fun to compete with incredibly competitive yet courteous and fun-loving students,” Berry said. “I am happy with our results this year, but there is always room for improvement. Regionals is very important to me because it is the gateway to glory, in a way. If I succeed at Regionals, I could help distinguish our school in the world of UIL academics.”
