A little more than a week ago, the school’s Certamen team attended its first competition of the year at the University of Pennsylvania.
Certamen, a classics-based quiz bowl-type competition, tests students on Latin and Roman history, culture, and mythology with questions like, “What sister of Oreithyia and daughter of Erechtheus fled to Crete at one point during her life, where Minos gave her the hunting dog Laelaps?” or “What is the meaning of the verb vēneō, which is a ‘neutral passive’ verb?”
Certamen organizes its competitions into three categories: the Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions. For the first time, the Haverford Certamen team competed in the Advanced division and made their way to the semifinals, where they lost by a close thirty-point deficit.
For the students at the competition, the result was a welcome surprise.
“My expectations for the competition were not very high, as we had competed in the same tournament the year prior in the Novice division and placed tenth. I think that the tournament was a great success.”
Phineas Manogue ’25
“My expectations for the competition were not very high, as we had competed in the same tournament the year prior in the Novice division and placed tenth,” Fifth Former and Captain Phineas Manogue said. “I think that the tournament was a great success.”
For faculty advisor Dr. Andrew Fenton, the success is not unexpected.
“It has been exciting to see our team grow over the past year as the guys have learned more, honed their classics knowledge, and become stronger competitors,” Dr. Fenton said. “The same guys who competed this year will compete in [the Advanced division] again next year, and I expect that they’ll do even better.”
The team, bolstered by the result, looks forward to further competitions.
“Everybody left UPenn’s campus excited about our result and eager to have other competitions,” Manogue said.
However, Manogue knows that they need to continue working diligently and improving if they want to maintain their success.
“I think that what hurt us the most was the lack of confidence,” Manogue said. “There were a couple of times when people on our team would second-guess themselves, allowing for the other teams to buzz in before us and potentially score points.”
With its first competition in their rearview mirror, the team plans on practicing with other teams to improve their confidence.
“We are planning on having a scrimmage in late April/early May with Baldwin and potentially Radnor,” Manogue said. “We will go over some of the questions that we failed to answer at the tournament.”
The team looks to expand its horizons outside of Pennsylvania. “Yale and Harvard have competitions that are supposed to be really challenging,” Dr. Fenton said, “but we are up for it!”
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