![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![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)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.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)
![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)
![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)
Dust gets kicked up. Sweat is dripping down faces in the 100-degree weather. Cheers are heard all across the course, but everyone’s eyes are on one thing—the finish line. It all comes down to the final stretch—the last leg. Everyone’s last bit of energy is poured out onto the 100m stretch. Athlete after athlete sprints across the line, it’s just a matter of which team will do it fastest.
The varsity boys cross country team will advance to the UIL Region IV Cross Country Championships after placing third at the UIL 5A District meet on Oct. 10, beating Glenn, Hays, Lockhart, Rouse and Lehman. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third, and the varsity girls placed fourth.
“Yesterday our team ran really well, all girls [got a new] personal record, which I’m super excited for them, and we improved dramatically from where we were last year, just looking at the results,” head coach Jake Alexander said. “Our boys took care of business. We are going to Regionals. We didn’t make it last year, but we made it this year and got a great group and I’m really proud of the way the boys are running.”
Varsity runner and senior, Emeric Famechon, placed eighth at districts and ran a 16:27.10. To prepare for his last year running as a high schooler, he runs after school for heat training.
“I did pretty well, I beat my goal which was 16:30 and I placed top 10,” Famechon said. “Last season was rough, not making it to regionals as a junior, but it feels amazing to go this year. We’ve been putting in the work and doing everything we could and seeing those results was amazing.”
Traveling for regionals will be the first time the team will have traveled and had to stay overnight for a tournament. Regionals will be held at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and the team will race on Oct. 22.
“I raced towards my expectations and performed really well [at districts and placed 15th],” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “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. 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.”
Varsity runner and junior Brianna Grandow placed 12th and ran a 19:59.30. This year marks her first year running on varsity.
“I broke 20 for the first time, so that was really exciting,” Grandow said. “I feel overall everyone did really great yesterday. [Getting a medal on varsity] feels a little different, and even though I’m not top five, it still matters. I’m keeping a positive attitude and not falling behind, but also pushing my teammates, so we can all be in a pack and move forward together. I think we are improving really well and there are great things to come for us.”
JV runner and freshman Mia Krupp, placed first and ran a 21:33.4. Next year she will run for varsity and plans to place higher with lots of training over the summer.
“It felt really good, I’ve never gotten first before so it was definitely an accomplishment,” Krupp said. “ Everybody did really well [at districts], and a lot of people PR’d, which was really exciting [to see].”
Alongside Krupp, JV runner and freshman Natalia Briseno came in 10th with a time of 22:54.0. Briseno recently came off of an injury and wasn’t running for five weeks.
“It definitely was a hard race, the course was hard, it was hot, but at the end coming in at 10th is really nice,” Briseno said. “It was a really good reaction from the team, everyone is always at the line waiting for you to finish and congratulate you, so it’s a nice environment to come into especially as finishing and it felt really good to be able to go run and perform how I did.”
The team has big hopes for all teams next year and believe they will be one of the best
“I think we’re prime to go run our best meet of the year at regionals,” Alexander said. “It’s going to be hot, but our team deals with adversity really well and I think it’s time to go out there and just show what CP XC does. [Next year] we’re going to be district champs.”
