![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![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)
![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)
Swimming Towards State
Swim Athletes Participate in State Championship
Facing forward, senior Isaac Luttrell swims the 100 breaststroke at the state swim meet. Luttrell finished 12th with a time of 59.68. “I was pretty excited to finish off my senior year with state,” Luttrell said. “It was a lot of fun and an amazing way to end my senior swimming.”
March 25, 2021
Every morning, swimmers wake up early, go to a pool, and focus on black line underwater for two hours straight. However, it is this constant practice that helps them to achieve accomplishments even as high as making it to State. Senior Isaac Luttrell qualified for and competed at what will be the last state swim meet of his high school career on Feb. 26-27
“I was pretty excited to finish off my year with state,” Luttrell said. “It was a lot of fun and an amazing way to end my senior swimming.”
Luttrell has competed at state before and is one of the team’s fastest breaststrokers. At State, Luttrell swam the 100 breaststroke and got 12th place with a time of 59.68.
“I like to swim breaststroke,” Luttrell said. “I have always enjoyed the feeling of the stroke and how different it is from all the other strokes. The kick is a completely different orientation than the other three strokes and it requires a lot more coordination.”
Joining Luttrell at state for boys swimming was junior Thomas Wu. Wu qualified for state in both the 100 breaststroke and the 100 butterfly. With a final time of 56.29, Wu became the 5A 100 breaststroke champion and second in his 100 butterfly.
“During my race, I felt super nervous and excited at the opportunity to win a state title,” Wu said. “When I finished first, I just felt overwhelmingly happy and relieved as that had been my goal since last year.”
Sophomore Micki Koltz and senior Stella Shipps also qualified for the state meet and competed on Mar. 1-2. Shipps for the 100 butterfly placing 9th overall with a time of 57.90, and Koltz for the 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke where she got 5th with a time of 2:07.14 and 6th with a time of 1:07.01 respectively.
“I remember feeling really excited that I made it to a final in both of my events,” Koltz said. “As we[the finalists] walked out onto the pool deck, the whole pool was there ready to cheer us on and it made the whole experience really memorable.”
Training for swimming is no easy feat, according to Shipps, she trains for 1.5 to 2.5 hours a day, and Luttrell said that he has between eight to 10 practices a week.
“I have been competitively swimming with a club for four and a half years now,” Luttrell said. “A typical practice has a warm up, a pre-set, and then a couple of] main sets, followed by a cool down. [Swimming competitively] gives me the opportunity to race others and meet people. ”
Swimmers weren’t the only ones who went to state, sophomore Pierce Brooke, a diver, also qualified for the championship meet. He ended up placing 4th overall. Previously placing 2nd in regionals and 1st in districts.
“I walked into regionals knowing who my competition would be, so I had a good feeling I would qualify for state,” Brooke said. “[At the state meet] I could have done better, I was so nervous and it caused me to mess up some of my dives. Being nervous makes thinking harder so I might focus on something else like how the dive would turn out rather than what I should do to make the dive good.”
Despite all of the ups and downs of state, according to the athletes, they all had a great time just being able to compete in a sport that they love.
![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-300x201.jpg)
