Latin Scholars Compete in Tournament
Exeter’s Kirtland Society competed at the annual Boston Latin School (BLS) certamen tournament last Saturday. Certamen is a latin competition where students are asked two types of questions: toss ups and bonuses. Exeter sent three teams to the competition, including one novice, one intermediate and one advanced team. All of the teams coasted through the first rounds, especially the novice team, which achieved a near-perfect score. Both the novice and intermediate teams made it to finals, where they placed second and third respectively. The advanced team made it to the second round but could not go on to the finals. Prep Nosa Lawani, a student on the novice team, won the Novice MVP award for the tournament as well. The MVP award given to Lawani was the first of its kind ever given at the competition.
According to Lawani, “the MVP award came as a surprise,” but he appreciated the “validation for (his) personal effort.” Lawani attributed his win to his hard studying and aggressive competing. “I played not for the sake of winning the award, but instead so my team could succeed,” he said.
He also attributed the team’s success to the rest of his teammates, saying, “it was the combined effort of the team that allowed us to do as well as we did.”
“It was the combined effort of the team that allowed us to do as well as we did.”
The novice team’s hard work , however, could not best that of the hosts, BLS, who make up one of the best certamen teams in the world. They fell short by a score of 135-100, the difference of a single question.
The intermediate team also placed, taking third behind the Roxbury Latin School and Dover. Member of the intermediate team and lower Janeva Dimen expressed satisfaction with the day’s results. “We were really happy with our awards,” she said, noting the extensive preparation that all members of her team undertook in the weeks leading up to the competition.
The advanced team was unable to make it through to the finals round and renew their first place title, won at last year’s tournament. Lower Thomas Mowen, a member of last year’s victorious team, explained that the defeat was in part due to the less experienced makeup of the advanced team. “Since the majority of the normal advanced team was away in Rome, we were forced to fill in the gaps with intermediate players,” he said.
Lawani also commended the team for its great improvement, saying, “At our last tournament at Yale we were able to hold our own, but weren’t able to place.”
He also remarked that the Exeter team is beginning to gain a reputation as a formidable team, though they have yet to win first at a competition. The Kirtland Society is now preparing for its next tournament at Harvard, a national competition. In light of this, the team is practicing more obscure topics. “We’re working on deepening our understanding of more obscure myth,” Lawani said. “[We’re] covering the whole of Roman history, [the] most challengingly [of which is] the late empire.”
Lawani and his novice teammates are also working on intermediate topics so that they will have a “smooth transition” and “even greater success [in] the upcoming year.”