On Saturday, November 8th twenty-five Latin students went to Amherst Central High School, in Buffalo, NY to compete in a series of physical and academic competitions. These events happen twice a year and adheres to the Roman quote “Mens sana, in corpore sano” [a healthy mind in a healthy body] from the satirist Juevnal. They competed in ping-pong, volleyball, chess, certamen (a jeopardy style four-person team game that is very competitive and covers mythology, history, translation, pronunciation, Latin grammar, derivatives, and culture), oratory, poster contest, t-shirt contest, as well as academic tests in Mythology, Derivatives, Latin Vocabulary, Roman Civilization, and Pentathlon.
There were around 250 students from twelve schools in eight school districts: Orchard Park, Amherst, Geneva, Skaneateles, Pittsford, East Aurora, St. John BOSCO, and New Hartford. Latin 1 student Joe Carlesimo designed our Latin Club t-shirts which won first place in the t-shirt contes. In the Junior High Chess tournament, first place went to Joe Carlesimo and third place to Teddy Reale, an Intro to Latin student. Anna Zhang, a Latin 2 student, won second place in the Latin 2 Oratory contest. Joe Carlesimo won first place in the poster contest as well. Members also won ribbons on all the academic tests competing against students of their own Latin experience level. Kevin Wu, an Intro to Latin student, won first place for Level ½ academic contests in Pentathlon and Roman Civilization along with second place in Mythology. Gayle Brooks tied for third place in the Vocabulary contest for Level 2. Anna Zhang won 1st place in the Derivatives academic contest for Level 2. Abby Gioppo won second place in the Level 2 Roman Civilization contest as a Latin three student, as that class doesn’t start until Spring Semester.
