![Walking through the tunnel created by the cheerleaders and Celebrities, senior Frances Tran smiles as the soccer team is sent off during DEN for their playoff game against Rouse tonight. Tran said the wins against Smithson Valley and Alamo Heights gave the team a morale boost to take on the Raiders tonight. “I know we were not 100% confident in those games,” Tran said. “But, Rouse is a big opponent for sure. We’re definitely going into tonight with a lot of morale [because of the previous wins].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/frances-tran.jpg)
![Holding a bucket of materials in one hand and a roll of tape in another, anatomy and biology teacher Tyler Terry prepares for a lab. Terry said his proudest moments are when his students are happy to see him. “When I take my wife to a football game or something and a bunch of students want to say hi to me or they like to smile and wave and it just makes me feel good that the students are really kind and supportive of me,” Terry said. “[I’m also] proud when I see students perform really well in their extracurriculars because I can see how hard they’re working in my classes, [so] when I see that they’re also working so hard in other things. Like they’re winning band competitions or they’re getting awards for their theater productions, or I see them put on their choir shows, that’s like, wow, you guys are incredible.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rags-6.png)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901.jpg)
![Holding her dog, Nova, senior Ariana Balakrishnan poses for her senior pictures while Nova wears a bandana with her college decision. Balakrishnan applied to 18 colleges in total, but she decided on Columbia in the end. “Right before I clicked the button to open Columbia’s letter, I literally looked at the camera and go ‘This is just gonna really suck because I wanted it so bad,’ and I clicked it and all of a sudden you hear trumpets,” Balakrishnan said. “There’s a video that plays when you open it and I actually didn’t watch the video, I just watched the screen go black, because every day of December before ED [Early Decision] I would go on YouTube and watch the acceptance video to manifest it, so immediately when the screen went black, I started screaming and jumping up and down. And my parents in the video are like ‘What are you doing, where’s the letter,’ and I was just screaming ‘I got in, I got in.” I just started crying, and it just felt like everything in the world came together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ariana-2-300x217.jpg)
In the rhythmic beat of pounding footsteps, a smile spreads across her face as the finish line of the Cedar Park Invitational Race held on Sept. 9 gets closer.
Senior cross country and track athlete, Isabel Conde De Frankenberg has left her final footprint on the school. From the starting gun to the finish line, Conde De Frankenberg’s journey has consisted of winning Gatorade Player of the Year for 2022-23, winning state her freshman year and improving her times from 17:30 to 17:07.
“There have been a lot of changes for Cedar Park running in the past four years,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “One of the things it’s taught me has been to be more independent with my running and be able to do things on my own without a team or without a coach.”
Going into high school, Conde De Frankenberg was placed into practice with the boys because there were no girls who matched her times. After her freshman and sophomore year, she didn’t have a team to run with and was on her own.
“My freshman and sophomore year I had a really stable guys team,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “Even if we were running at six in the morning, they had the best positive attitude. Those were definitely really impactful teammates, I was really sad to see them move on because the last two years I’ve kind of been on my own but the team always teaches you things.”
In addition to winning state her freshman year, she placed second her sophomore year, third her junior year and second her senior year. She placed fourth at regionals held in Corpus Christi which qualified her to run in her final state cross country race.
“Freshman year was probably the most nervous for state I ever was,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “The day before I was throwing up just because I was so nervous and had a lot of pressure from the team but I was young then. This year, I got on the line and told myself that I just wanted to have fun and that’s exactly what I did, I went out there and had fun and it was the best I could do.”
Conde De Frankenberg had offers from multiple different colleges, including full rides from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oregon to continue her running career with them. She committed to the University of Oregon on Nov. 17 and will be attending school and running there in the fall.
“I’m not nervous for college at all,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “I have been waiting for this moment to move on and I’m ready to get past high school. I’m excited to see what I can do. I know I’m going to be young, but hopefully in the next four years I can improve some time and maybe win some national meets.”
Beyond her goals in college, Conde De Frankenberg hopes to run for Argentina’s national team, which she ran for the summer before her senior year. She hopes to compete in the 2024 Olympics with Argentina.
“Most of the kids in Argentina don’t go to school anymore when they compete for Argentina,” Conde de Frankenberg said. “That’s all they do, that’s their life and they get paid and brand deals. It’s one of those things where it gets difficult living in a different country from everyone else. If I was there, my whole life would be running and it could be my only focus but for me, traveling, school and money play a part in that career.”
After four years of running with Cedar Park, three different coaches and fluctuating numbers of teammates, Conde De Frankenberg will move on to racing in another place, but won’t forget her time as a Timberwolf.
“As I move on, I am able to appreciate and love the running I did at Cedar Park,” Conde De Frankenberg said. “The most valuable lesson I learned was being able to trust others and that goes with the team, people you run with and coaches. Sometimes not everyone is trustworthy, but you have to develop good relationships with good teammates and build on that and use it to get better.”
