by Claudia Clark

Middle school rises to the occasion! Two teams made up of 7th and 8th graders competed for nearly four hours in the season’s first certamen tournament at Clark HS this past Saturday, 10 November. Students competing in the novice division were Ethan Arellano, Jacob Saenger, Borna Hajivandi, Juan Pablo Martinez, Royya Osouli, Elizabeth Holmes, Maddy Herrera, Hope Westerman, Jacob Carter, and Peter Fera.

The students buzzed in quickly and answered many questions correctly in this high pressure, timed environment and while they did not end up at the finals, their scores beat ten other teams. Senior Katie Hazzard showed her support of the novice certamen team by bringing bagels and providing moral support. Teachers, Alleyne Rogers and Claudia Clark, helped organize all the students and read questions during the actual competition that hosted 21 teams at the novice level alone. TMI parents who came to support were impressed that there were so many students taking Latin at a variety of schools and are looking forward to other opportunities for their children to excel with the TMI team. Schools who participated were from all over San Antonio and Austin. Students, parents, and faculty went out to lunch afterwards to celebrate TMI’s strong showing and enjoy each other’s fellowship.

Certamen is a game of fast recall of facts about classical civilizations and its peoples, languages, and cultures. The matches are supposed to be fun, competitive, and informative.