HCCSA Blog

Dear HCCSA Family,

The Latin Department is thrilled and grateful to share with you the accomplishments of our Latin Club members this weekend at the Texas State Junior Classical Association Central Texas Regional Convention.  This year, it was held just down the road at Westwood High School.   Over 600 students, representing twenty-one Central Texas public and private schools, were in attendance.  In total, twenty-eight HCCSA students participated by taking classical knowledge tests, creating classically themed costumes and artwork, and competing in athletics and certamen. 

The competition began Friday night with the Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl) preliminary rounds.  The top three teams in each division advance to the final round on Saturday afternoon.  Our Middle School team, consisting of Jonathan Mitchell, Thomas Ebner, Christian Johnson, and Shane Jasek, decisively won the preliminaries and moved on the final round, which they won against Hill Country Middle School and Kealing Middle School.  This team will now advance to represent the Central Texas Region at the State Convention on Friday, March 27 – Saturday, March 28  at S.M.U. in Dallas. 

Our Lower team (High School), consisting of Aidan Aannestad, Kyndal Payne, Jesse Jasek and Mitchel Janssen also convincingly won the preliminary rounds on Friday.  Saturday afternoon’s Lower Division battle was very hard fought against Westlake and St. Andrew’s.  In the end, Westlake contested the last question which sent the round into a sudden death match.  Because no team gave the correct answer, the score before the question stood and this allowed Westlake to advance to represent Central Texas at State without having to including any members of the second place team, HCCSA.  Our players are even more motivated to win for next year now!

Saturday morning began with the Academic Testing.  There are fifteen tests, covering all areas of classical knowledge.  Each of the Latin Club members could take two each.  The top three scores from each test are added up for each school’s Latin Club chapter.  Our Middle School Chapter (7^th – 8^th grades) took third place in the Middle School Division.  This is a huge victory for them, as there were eight other middle schools from all over the Central Texas region represented in this division.  The High School chapter (9th – 10^th) competed against four other chapters in the Lower Division and won first place in the Academic Sweepstakes by a large margin. 

In the Pentathlon general classical knowledge test (which did not count towards the Sweepstakes prize) all of our twenty-eight students scored above the 75^th percentile, with 42% in the top 25^th percentile.  Aidan Aannestad won the High Score Award for all divisions.

Five students competed in the Olympika, or athletic events, earning the Middle School Athletic Sweepstakes prize as well.  What well-rounded students we have!

Joshua Andrews and Rachel Shanks created costumes for this year’s them  - Pluto (Boys’), and Ceres (Girls’).  Joshua won first place and Rachel fourth place in their categories.  We will have pictures up on the web page soon – stay tuned!

Individually our students distinguished themselves in remarkable ways.  In all, HCCSA had four High Score Awards, which recognize students for receiving the highest score on a test out of all the divisions.  In the Decathlon test, which encompasses ten different areas of classical knowledge, from Latin grammar to mythology and history, two of our students took away the top prize.  Aidan Aannestad received the High Score Award for all divisions save senior, and Thomas Ebner took second place in the Middle School Decathlon.  Justin Andrews won the High Score award in the Latin Poetry Reading Comprehension, and Jesse Jasek earned the High Score Award  in Mythology for missing only one out of fifty-five questions.

Here is a summary of the individual awards earned by HCCSA students: 

Middle School

            Steven Baker - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude; Certamen Team Alternate

            Stephen Banks - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 3^rd Place, Decathlon; 2^nd Place Latin Derivatives

            Dacien Barnes – Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 2^nd Place, Greek Derivatives

            Courntney Boorman – Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 3^rd Place, Roman Life

            Nathan Brown – Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude

            Olivia Dahl - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude

            Thomas Ebner – Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 3^rd Place, Latin Grammar; 2^nd Place, Middle School Decathlon;                   Middle School Certamen Team Language Specialist

            David Hannah – Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 2^nd Place, Greek History

            Jack Horton – Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude; Middle School Certamen Team Alternate

            Sara Jackson - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude; 3^rd Place, Decathlon; Middle School Certamen Team Alternate

            Shane Jasek - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 1^st Place, Mythology; Middle School Certamen Team Mythology                   Specialist

            Christian Johnson - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 3^rd Place Roman History; 2^nd Place, Geography; Middle                                     School Certamen Team History Specialist

            Laura Mahaney - Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 2^nd  Place Olympika (Athletics) Sweepstakes

            Alivia Martin  - Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 2^nd  Place, Greek Life; 2^nd  Place Olympica (Athletics)                           Sweepstakes

            Lindy Martin - Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 2^nd Place Olympika (Athletics) Sweepstakes

            Jonathan Mitchell - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 1^st Place, Grammar; Middle School Certamen Team Captain

            Chloe Policke - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude; 2^nd Place Olympika (Athletics) Sweepstakes       

            Matthew Roberson - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude; 3^rd Place, Latin Derivatives

High School

            Aidan Aannestad - Summa Cum Laude – Area F High Score Award;  1^st Place Grammar; 1^st Place Decathlon –                      Area F High Score Award; Lower Division Certamen Team Captain

            Josh Andrews - Pentathlon, Maxima Cum Laude; 1^st Place Costume – Pluto

            Justin Andrews - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude;1^st Place Poetry Reading Comprehension – Area F High Score;

                        3^rd Place Advanced Grammar

            Victory Day -  Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude

            Caroline Janssen -  Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 2^nd Place Poetry Reading Comprehension

            Mitchel Janssen - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 3^rd Place Roman History; Lower Division Certamen Team                         History Specialist

            Jesse Jasek - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 1^st Place Mythology – Area F High Score Award;

                        2^nd Place Greek History; Lower Division Certamen Team Mythology Specialist

            Kyndal Payne - Pentathlon, Summa Cum Laude; 1^st Place, Roman Life; Lower Division Certamen Team Life and                  History Specialist

            Rachel Shanks -  Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude

            Morgan Winslow - Pentathlon, Magna Cum Laude

          In all, it was an exciting and God-glorifying weekend for our students.  We are looking forward to taking all twenty-eight students to the State Convention in Dallas on March 26-27 for more tests, certamen, athletics, and fun!  Please support the trip by purchasing our now-infamous “Mr. T-shirts.”  For more information, contact Erin Valdez, TSJCL Latin Club adviser and sponsor, evaldez@hccsa.org.