After finishing our Novice year with a strong performance at Nationals , we arrived in New Haven feeling ready to win . We held multiple practices every week prior to the tournament to prepare our new and experienced players . For the first time in a few years , BLS had three strong intermediate teams competing . We were very excited to play Brookfield Academy round 1 because we have had great rounds with each other in the past . The round started off with “ What daughter of Schoenius- ” and I buzzed , answering “ Atalanta ” to get it correct . This momentum only continued to build through the rest of the match . However Brookfield Academy managed to recover and win with amazing buzzes from their grammarian Kyle Jain . Our second and third rounds went smoothly after we tried to keep a good mentality after our loss in round 1 . We made semis as 5th seed to face Philips Exeter and Northside College Prep . After the first 10 tossups , the game was very intense , with our score being almost identical to Northside ' s . Throughout the whole match , Ben played the best he has ever played which allowed us to lead by 5 points going into the final tossup . The team and I knew the last question would be a myth tossup , so I tried to calm my nerves down . The moderator starts the question , “ What Isthmian king bought his horses- ” and I buzzed to answer “ Rhesus ” only realizing after that I had got it incorrect . However , Northside also buzzed in to get the question wrong as well giving us the win . We could not believe that we made finals by 5 points after the most intense round we had ever played . We played Brookfield Academy again in finals along with Thomas Jefferson High School . We managed to bring home the win after Ben answered “ Luca ” to tossup 19 . We got 1st , and Ben received MVP .
-Danny Nguyen , Class IV
“ Lux et veritas et victoria ” - light and truth and victory . It turns out that this motto , emblazoned on the official T-shirts of this year ’ s Yale certamen tournament , could not be more applicable to the performance of our 3 novice , 3 intermediate , and 3 advanced teams that day . With over 80 teams registered from all across the country , competition was fierce . For my team ( consisting of Dante Minutillo , Carina Layfield , Clair Fu , and yours truly ), these contenders included Northside College Prep ( round 1 ), BASIS D . C . from Washington , D . C . ( round 2 ), and even our own teams from BLS ( round 2 and semifinals ). Things started off a bit slow for us early on , but as the tournament progressed we picked up in both speed and energy . We even managed to answer nine questions in a row during round three ! After making our way past semifinals , we found ourselves pitted against formidable teams from Wisconsin ’ s Brookfield Academy and Virginia ’ s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology for finals . Despite this , we “ played our game ”, to quote our coach Mr . Howard , and had the incredible honor of bringing home gold medals for BLS !
-Ashley Chou , Class II
4
INTERMEDIATE CERTAMEN
After finishing our Novice year with a strong performance at Nationals , we arrived in New Haven feeling ready to win . We held multiple practices every week prior to the tournament to prepare our new and experienced players . For the first time in a few years , BLS had three strong intermediate teams competing . We were very excited to play Brookfield Academy round 1 because we have had great rounds with each other in the past . The round started off with “ What daughter of Schoenius- ” and I buzzed , answering “ Atalanta ” to get it correct . This momentum only continued to build through the rest of the match . However Brookfield Academy managed to recover and win with amazing buzzes from their grammarian Kyle Jain . Our second and third rounds went smoothly after we tried to keep a good mentality after our loss in round 1 . We made semis as 5th seed to face Philips Exeter and Northside College Prep . After the first 10 tossups , the game was very intense , with our score being almost identical to Northside ' s . Throughout the whole match , Ben played the best he has ever played which allowed us to lead by 5 points going into the final tossup . The team and I knew the last question would be a myth tossup , so I tried to calm my nerves down . The moderator starts the question , “ What Isthmian king bought his horses- ” and I buzzed to answer “ Rhesus ” only realizing after that I had got it incorrect . However , Northside also buzzed in to get the question wrong as well giving us the win . We could not believe that we made finals by 5 points after the most intense round we had ever played . We played Brookfield Academy again in finals along with Thomas Jefferson High School . We managed to bring home the win after Ben answered “ Luca ” to tossup 19 . We got 1st , and Ben received MVP .
-Danny Nguyen , Class IV
ADVANCED CERTAMEN
“ Lux et veritas et victoria ” - light and truth and victory . It turns out that this motto , emblazoned on the official T-shirts of this year ’ s Yale certamen tournament , could not be more applicable to the performance of our 3 novice , 3 intermediate , and 3 advanced teams that day . With over 80 teams registered from all across the country , competition was fierce . For my team ( consisting of Dante Minutillo , Carina Layfield , Clair Fu , and yours truly ), these contenders included Northside College Prep ( round 1 ), BASIS D . C . from Washington , D . C . ( round 2 ), and even our own teams from BLS ( round 2 and semifinals ). Things started off a bit slow for us early on , but as the tournament progressed we picked up in both speed and energy . We even managed to answer nine questions in a row during round three ! After making our way past semifinals , we found ourselves pitted against formidable teams from Wisconsin ’ s Brookfield Academy and Virginia ’ s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology for finals . Despite this , we “ played our game ”, to quote our coach Mr . Howard , and had the incredible honor of bringing home gold medals for BLS !