![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)
Cedar Park Girls Lacrosse is often overlooked because of their lack of UIL status. However, this team should be anything but forgettable, continually improving and advancing to the state playoffs. With fifteen seniors this season, the team is at the top of their game, dominating every opponent they come across.
Their first four games of the season were massacres, winning every game by fourteen points or more.
“We’re like a big family,” Megan Havener, senior, said. “We don’t have lots of drama or cliques so we get along great.”
Last year was a rebuilding season for the girls, after they lost multiple seniors to the class of 2008. They struggled to find chemistry on the field and were knocked out of the state playoffs after the first round.
“[Last season] was really hard because all the seniors had left so we had a new team and had to work extra hard to get to state.” Bri Wilson, senior, said.
This year is a different story however. The girls are friends on and off the field, allowing the team chemistry to come naturally. The raw talent the girls posses has only been heightened by their ability to work as a team. As most athletes know, a team sport can’t be won by a single player. A team could be full of a bunch of super-stars but potentially loose every game because they don’t work together, making team chemistry irreplaceable.
“We’ve all been playing together for a long time so we know each other really well,” Havener said.
The team has improved on offense and defense and their ability to work together is the secret behind their success. They are able to pass and move off the ball with ease and they have confidence in each other. Trusting that your teammates will do their job properly is half the battle of playing a team sport and these girls know that if a mistake is made, someone is right there to lend a helping hand. The team also has high moral, not letting slip ups get in the way.
“We don’t get down on ourselves,” Mary Liz Tuttle, senior, said. “In the first half, if we’re losing, we come back. We call ourselves the cardiac kids.”
They have two big opponents coming up, St. Andrews and Westlake. St. Andrews is consistently strong, placing high in the district rankings. The Lady Timberwolves will be looking to take down the champ. Westlake is also on their radar because of their new coach.
“The UT club coach is coaching [Westlake] this year so they’ll probably be good,” Havener said.
The Westlake coach is known by most of the girls on the Cedar Park team because she used to coach many of them on another club. However, this knowledge of the opponents coach could be useful. Knowing which plays the coach likes to call can be a huge advantage to the girls.
The girls are looking to go undefeated in district and make it all the way in the state playoffs. With how their season is going thus far, it seems very likely they will be able to achieve their goal. They have the talent, determination and knowledge of each other and the game to accomplish all their goals and more. If they stay focused on the prize, nothing should stop these girls.
