WHS Latin teams take top awards in local competition

The Westlake High School Latin Certamen teams took top awards in the fourth annual Certamen competition. Certamen is a trivia game similar to Academic Challenge but with questions related to Roman history, Roman culture, mythology, grammar, Latin syntax and classical literature.

The lower team – senior Kyle Lathem and freshmen Anthony Li and Vishal Shah – took first place for the first time. Lee Burneson Middle School seventh-grader Alex Lathem was the overall winner of the novice team. The upper level team – seniors Sam Buck and Tom Carroll, and junior Chris Dunlap – finished second overall.

The event is hosted annually by the Shaker Heights Latin Club as a way for students to have a trial run prior to the Ohio Junior Classical League Convention in Columbus. This year’s convention will be held Feb. 24-26.