Walton students compete at Harvard Certamen tournament
Apr. 10—On April 1, two teams from Walton High School competed in the 13th Annual Harvard Certamen Tournament, hosted by the Harvard Classical Club in person at the university.
One team competed in the Intermediate division, while another team competed in the Advanced division, in which they won first place. This is the first time Walton has attended the tournament in person since 2016 and the first time a team from Walton or Georgia has won first place in any division.
Certamen, a Latin word meaning "competition," is a quiz bowl style game which tests students' knowledge of classics and the world of Ancient Rome. A typical round involves three teams of four players who all individually compete to answer each of 20 tossup questions as quickly as possible. If answered correctly, each tossup comes with two bonus questions during which teammates then collaborate to come up with the answer.
The questions cover topics including Roman history, literature, mythology and the Latin language. Each player on a team is usually assigned to focus on one of these four categories. Preparation requires hours of study by each player on the specific topics in which they specialize. The team also practices weekly with their coach and teacher — Alan Farnsworth.
All tournaments are split into three divisions: Novice for students usually in their first year of Latin study, Intermediate for students one year after Novice and Advanced for all other players. At the tournament, there were 15 teams in the Intermediate division and 24 teams in Advanced.
Both Walton teams advanced to semifinals which included the top nine teams of each division, and the Advanced team won in both semifinals and finals which included the top three teams. Walton was able to defeat formidable teams from Boston Latin School and Roxbury Latin School on their home turf, as well as Rossview High School of Tennessee, who have been the reigning champion at national level collegiate certamen tournaments including Yale and Harvard for over a year.
In the three preliminary rounds, the Walton Advanced team correctly answered 37 of 60 tossups, earning a majority of the points possible. In the finals, while the competition was fierce, the Advanced team was unrelenting and led in points throughout the entire duration of the round. They scored seven of the 20 tossups in the round, denying the advantage to the other two teams who were then unable to gain momentum.
The players will be competing in certamen again in front of hundreds of spectators at the National Junior Classical League's National Convention at Emory University, the week of July 23, representing Georgia.
