Advanced Certamen Wins Area Championship

The St. Andrew’s students competed well on their home turf this year. The Middle School Certamen team comprised of Tristram Coffin ‘19, Jack Cowan ‘20, Henry Erlinger ‘20, Gina Perkins ‘19, and Will Snider ’20 won second place in an incredibly close final round. The Intermediate Certamen team comprised of Layne Alam ‘18, Jack Guttell ‘18, and Gavin Massengale ‘17 also won second place. The Advanced team comprised of Bryce Deskins ‘15, Rachel Nezzer ‘17, Katherine Salinas ‘17, Walton Schmidt ‘17, and Jonathan Zornio ‘16, plus alternates Max Bartee ‘16 and William McKinnerney ‘17, played an amazing final round, won first place, and will now combine with the LASA team to represent the Austin area at the TSJCL State Convention.

As a school, St. Andrew's Upper School took second place in the overall Academic sweepstakes, and third place in the Olympika sweepstakes (calculated by assigning points for first, second, and third place finishes).

Additionally, Bryce Deskins '15 was recognized for having the high score on the Roman History test, and was awarded a scholarship for $519 ($1 for every convention attendee) in recognition of his high score achievement on the Decathlon test. Katherine Salinas '17 got the highest score on the Pentathlon of all students in level III, a great accomplishment considering every student at the convention participates in that contest. Upper School Latin teacher Jennie Luongo remarks, “Katherine also did a fabulous job of serving as Area F Chairperson and hosting the convention. She has worked for a year to make sure that the convention ran smoothly and that everyone had a good experience.”

Reflecting on the volunteer support during the two-day competition, Jennie adds, “We so appreciate the many, many faculty, parents, students and alumni who helped us to host the event. We are so grateful for all the help with testing, supervision, judging, and more. The convention could not have happened without the entire St. Andrew’s community supporting us. Thanks also go to Sheri Zornio, our Certamen team parent.”

Congratulations to all the winners and "bonam fortunam omnibus" at the TSJCL State Convention, which will be held on March 26-29 at Amarillo High School.