Latin Clubs Compete at JCL Area C Convention, Middle School Team Advances to State

Twenty-eight members of the FWCD Latin Club participated in the Texas State Junior Classical League Area C Convention on Saturday, February 26. This was the club’s first in-person convention since the beginning of the pandemic, and they were excited to be able to compete again! The Middle School club took home a total of 29 Top 5 awards and even more placed in the Top 10.

In an exciting final match, the Middle School Novice Division certamen team defeated St. Mark’s School of Texas and Covenant Classical School, 115 to 30 to 0. This team, comprising Andrew Lobo ’26 (captain), Aiden Alband ’27, Michael Head ’27, and Blake Wood ’27, will represent the DFW area at the state competition in April.

Individual awards were also given to the following Middle Schoolers: 

Seventh Grade

• Aiden Alband – 4th, Mottoes, Phrases and Abbreviations; 3rd, Roman History
• Ryan Bagshahi – 5th, Vocabulary; 9th, Ancient Geography
• Madison Chan – 1st, Greek Derivatives; 1st, Classical Art
• Ethan Gatzke – 2nd Mottoes, Phrases and Abbreviations; 4th, Roman History
• Michael Head – 3rd, Mythology; 2nd, Latin Literature
• Carson Henry – 6th, Vocabulary; 4th, Greek History
• Cash Hickman – 5th, Greek Life and Literature; 3rd, Classical Art
• Brodie McCollough – 7th, Ancient Geography
• Alex Schwartz – 8th, Roman History; 3rd, Greek History
• Emmy Strathmeyer – 10th, Mythology; 3rd, Dramatic Interpretation
• Emmy Strathmeyer and Ryan Bagshahi – 4th, Vocal Ensemble
• Grant Walton – 8th, Ancient Geography
• Blake Wood – 1st, Mottoes, Phrases and Abbreviations; 7th, Mythology; 3rd, Mosaics; 2nd, Miscellaneous Art

Eighth Grade

• Price Carter – 4th, Ancient Geography 
• Bailey Flynn – 1st, Mosaics
• Jake Hudman – 3rd, Mottoes, Phrases and Abbreviations; 3rd, Roman History
• Beckett Kiseljack – 9th, Mythology; 10th, Grammar
• Andrew Lobo – 1st, Grammar; 1st, Roman History
• Sam Saade – 1st, Latin Derivatives
• Samantha Saade – 1st, Reading Comprehension
• Ashton Theesfeld – 3rd, Oil or Acrylic Painting
• Akshay Vasudevan – 6th, Greek Life and Literature

The Upper School Latin club had a great showing at the Area C contest despite missing several key members of their two Certamen squads. At the advanced level, Jackson Grace ’23 and Jack Fishman ’23 led the team without the support of their usual teammates, but with the support of alternates Walker Gaines ’24, Arjun Vasudevan ’24, and Matthew Lobo ’23 they managed to finish three rounds of competition only two questions short of finals. At the intermediate level, Wilkes Head ’25 and Nara Acuna Guba ’25 played a person down but had Murphy Hoefer ’25 join them to help the effort. They managed to fight through the preliminaries to make it to finals where they fell to St. Mark’s and Covenant to finish third. Students also each took two academic tests graded against other students at their levels and placings on those tests were as follows:

• Jack Fishman ’23 – 2nd, Roman Life; 5th, Roman History
• Walker Gaines ’24 – 3rd, Mottoes; 4th, Roman History
• Jackson Grace ’23 – 5th, Mythology; 7th, Latin Derivatives
• Nara Acuña Guba ’25 – 10th, Advanced Grammar; 5th, Roman Life
• Matthew Lobo ’23 – 2nd, Advanced Grammar; 4th, Advanced Reading Comprehension Prose
• Wilkes Head ’25 – 6th, Mythology; 2nd, Ancient Geography and Monuments
• Murphy Hoefer ’25 – 3rd, Latin Vocabulary; 5th, Latin Derivatives
• Arjun Vasudevan ’24 – 3rd, Greek History; 1st, Greek Life and Literature

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