![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)
National Merit Semi Finalists announced
National Merit Semifinalists for the class of 2015 earned the title by scoring at least a 218 on the PSAT. Seniors Rachel Pokorney, Bake Rice, Josh Wiggers, Megan LaMonica and Olivia Larkin qualified. “The most helpful thing I did was take practice tests,” LaMonica said. Kehoe, who graduated a year early with the class of 2014, also qualified.
October 2, 2014
Last week, PSAT national merit semifinalists were named. Seniors Rachel Pokorney, Blake Rice, Megan LaMonica, Josh Wiggers and Olivia Larkin were recognized for scoring at least a 218 on their PSAT last year. Former student, Haley Kehoe, who graduated a year early with the class of 2014, was also recognized.
Besides being a precursor to the SAT, the PSAT is used to award scholarships to high-scoring students, known as National Merit Scholars.
Semifinalist will not know if they will become scholars until next year.
NHS President Pokorney was just happy to know she is a semifinalist after the work she put in with More Than a Teacher, a PSAT/SAT preparation service used by several students. But even with preparation, Pokorney admitted her score was due partially to luck.
“It was crazy to know that the test came down to a few questions,” Pokorney said. “I’m really thankful the answers I chose worked out.”
After taking his test, Wiggers was unsure if he would be a semifinalist.
“I knew I had a good score,” Wiggers said. “But I wasn’t sure it would make the cutoff because it was close.”
In contrast to Pokorney, Wiggers, who hopes to major in chemical engineering, opted to prepare by participating in Cedar Park’s PSAT Team.
“I wouldn’t have been able to push myself to practice outside of school,” Wiggers said. “It forced me to prepare.”
Along with Wiggers, future bio-engineering major Spanish Honor Society Tresurer LaMonica practiced with the school’s program, taught by AP English III teacher Chriss Hexter and Pre-AP math teacher Linda Zeimann.
“It’s good to know that PSAT team paid off,” LaMonica said.
The National Hispanic Recognition and Commended scholar students were also announced.
Based on their PSAT scores from last year, seniors Noah Knight, Payton Morris, Julia O’Hanlon and Sarah Herzer qualified for the National Hispanic Recognition. “I am more of an ACT person, but I was pleasantly suprised,” O’Hanlon said.
In the class of 2015, 14 students were recognized as Commended Scholars based on their PSAT scores, including Alina Tang. “I didn’t really prepare for the PSAT, so when I realized I was commended I was really suprised,” Tang said.
![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)
![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-901-600x400.jpg)
