![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)
The Cedar Park Cross Country team has caused quite a stir around the country. The team was ranked number one in the nation at the start of the year. This placement was determined by the running times from several small competitions they attended across the state. With five of the best runners in the nation on their team, they hoped to compete at the Nike Cross Invitational again, and top last year’s eighth place finish.
Their season started off with a bang in their first UIL competition. They competed in the District meet at Old Settler’s Park October 26 and won first in the district, taking four of the top five positions. They continued on to the State meet, finishing third overall. Parker Stinson placed third overall runner in Boy’s Varsity. From there, the Cross country team competed at the Woodlands qualifier for the Nike Cross Invitational. This competition, one of nine being held across the country, would determine which teams would compete in the Nike Cross Invitational. Only the top two teams could continue on to Nationals. The boys placed third, one spot away from qualifying, but they were selected as one of four, wild card teams to be invited to Nationals.
The team faced some great adversities on the way to Nationals, however. During the course of the season, Bobby McIllece, senior, was injured, and three members of the team came down with the flu shortly before the National meet. Despite these setbacks they placed 11 at Nationals out of 22 teams in attendance. While this was not the result they had hoped for, the boys still had a bright outlook on the event and their placement.
“I’m a little let down because we were expecting higher all year,” said Cameron Shoppach, senior. “But eleventh in the nation is not bad, so I’m not going to complain about it.”
Although the guys were unable to achieve their goals, they did remarkably well this season. The 2009 Cedar Park Cross Country team has definitely set a standard of excellence for future runners at this school.
