![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.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)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
Prom is the thing nearly all highschool students look forward to. The prepping that goes into prom is like no other. Girls shop for the perfect dress that goes along with their nails, hair and makeup while boys plan promposals to ask them out. However, even with all this work and money spent on this special event, prom this year did not live up to the hype.
Prom isn’t just a dance. It’s weeks of preparation and anticipation and then a day of getting ready, taking pictures, going out to eat, attending the dance and the after party. Morning of, my date and I attended a Porsche Car Meet in Austin which not only got me excited for the rest of the day, but even more excited for the dance. After a couple of hours it was time to get ready. I first started off showering and diffusing my hair to get it ready. But, by the time I was ready to start on my makeup, the eyeliner I had practiced and practiced with ran out. Not only did this make me quite frustrated, but also worried about how others would judge my looks without perfect eyeliner. Thankfully, my mom saved the day with her pencil eyeliner, my mood was still ruined. Things were not looking so good. I finished my makeup and put on my dress and heels and was ready to go take pictures, which I hoped would brighten my day.
Fortunately, my date and I chose a beautiful spot down by Lake Travis to take our prom pictures at, which boosted my mood. By this time I was back to being excited for the rest of the day, and at the end of our photoshoot we left for dinner at The Roaring Fork.
However, I forgot that the traffic in Austin sucks. Thankfully, even though we arrived late to our reservation, they held our table and even gave us a booth. The compliments we received on our looks boosted my energy and the amazing food made me even more excited. After trying a desert that almost made us throw up, we made our way to the Bob Bullock Museum excited to attend our first prom.
The second we entered, we didn’t really know what to think. After turning in our ticket, the first thing we saw was a moving camera that was set up in the entryway. Students were able to stand on a platform and pose while a camera spun around them, capturing a video. It was a cool attraction, but placement of it was really questionable as it took up a ton of space and made it uncomfortable when walking around it to get to the dance floor. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I definitely wasn’t expecting such a little area for dancing. Knowing that the museum is quite big, I was hoping there would be some artifacts students could see, but there were none. The dance floor seemed like any other dance floor, but the best part was playing Cedar Park Swag. For the amount of upperclassmen at Cedar Park, there weren’t a lot of seating areas, but thankfully we weren’t sitting much. After heading to the upstairs portion of the facility, which one could reach either by crowded elevator or neverending stars, we made it to the makeshift “casino” that was set up for the “Casino Royale” prom theme. Now I’ve never been to a casino, but I don’t think only six tables with poker, blackjack and roulette cut it. Also, the roulette was definitely rigged.
With the amount of people upstairs, it got hot quickly. Like way too hot. And the photobooth was not what you think. A gold backdrop with a ring light was not the photobooth I was thinking of and was disappointed by its setup. Even though the picture came in the correct style, it didn’t feel right.
Honestly, that was it at prom. A dance floor, tables, drinks, two picture taking stations, a “casino” and not even a museum. I was pretty disappointed. Hopefully my senior year prom tops this one.
After leaving the dance, my date and I decided to go to Main Event to end the night, instead of going to parties. That decision single handedly made my night. Going to an arcade all dressed up, with Icees in one hand and a disposable camera in the other definitely brightened the vibe. Without a care in the world we made the best memories after a mid dance.
Overall, prom was an experience in and of itself but the best part was taking my heels off.
