Last weekend, the Mount Greylock Junior Classical League attended a three-day state convention with members from around the state. They placed fourth overall after engaging in a variety of competitions and activities over three days to celebrate ancient Roman and Greek language and culture.

One of the offered activities was Certamen, a classical trivia game that different levels of teams compete in by quickly answering questions. In addition, there were parades, costume contests, a chariot race, gladiator games, and elections for next year’s state officers. Other competitions included Academic Exams, art competitions, and Olympika Events.

Ten students won individual awards, including Phoebe Barnes winning 1st Place in the Literature Exam, Katrina Hotaling winning second place in the Cloth Art Category, Rachel Bisson winning second place in English Oratory, and Noelle Dravis winning first place for Black and White Photo.

According to Senior Katrina Hotaling, president of the Greylock chapter of JCL, “since we got Fourth Place overall out of fifteen schools, we made a notable improvement. Mount Greylock JCL had a hard year because of the job action in the fall so we didn’t have any teachers and we weren’t allowed to meet during school time. However, we turned the year around and placed way higher than we thought we would after not being together for two months and having our fall event taken away from us by the state. We didn’t crush [Boston Latin School] but we did crush like 10 other schools so I’m happy. I’m really proud of everyone in our chapter but especially the Greylock board because everybody worked as hard as they could this year despite the fact we had short meetings” 

The club came first in the state in Community Service by doing Service Hours as a group. In addition, the club came first in the Spirit Competition.

“For spirit this year, there were two themes. On Saturday it was ‘What’s all the buzz about?’ and on Sunday it was ‘Spread the Purple and Gold JCLove.’ For Saturday we all dressed up in black with yellow bee stripes and bee antennae that we had made, and we had some signs that were like newspapers for ‘What’s the buzz.’ We all stand there and scream our cheers as loud as we could. On Sunday we did the same thing with our cheers but we walked in the parade with all purple shirts and white togas.” The delegation’s work paid off with their win for the state.

In addition, the club won first place in for their scrapbook, made by Historian Colette Stapp. Stapp explained that “my scrapbook is just a catalog of what we’ve done throughout the year as a JCL. It was really exciting to win first. I can’t say I was super surprised because I put a ton of work into it. My theme this year was the cosmos because I love space. It’s a good aesthetic and I feel it represents how our JCL has expanded. I think it relates the the National [JCL Competition’s] theme of how ‘bees are not of a solitary nature’ and the idea that we’re not alone in space even though it is humungous.”

Hotaling had a lot of fun at the convention. “One of my favorite parts was Certamen,” she said. “Our teams did well this year. Our advanced team won one of our rounds and our novice girls did very well. Another of my favorites was the bus ride because everybody loves JCL bus rides. Oh, and chariot races were really fun. Our chariot broke but it was okay.” For her, the best thing about states is “getting to go see the other schools, getting to meet so many new people, and getting to do Latin stuff for a whole weekend. It’s a really fun time for everyone.”