In late October, Harker’s chapter of the Junior Classical League headed to Stanford University for the Ludi Octobres event.

Numerous upper school competitors placed high. Bobby Bloomquist, grade 9, took first place in Grammar III, in which Mathew Mammen, grade 9, won an honorable mention. In Mythology III, Praveen Batra, grade 10, took first place, with Allison Wang, grade 12, and Sara Min, grade 9, taking second and third, respectively. Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 9, finished third in Grammar III, and Alexander Young, grade 9, tied for first in History and received an honorable mention in Mythology III. Batra also won second place in Advanced Reading Comprehension, in which Arnav Tandon, grade 11, Andrew Semenza, grade 10, and Allison Wang, grade 12, tied for third. Alexander Lam finished second in Advanced Vocabulary, while Edgar Lin, grade 10, tied for first place in Derivatives and took third place in History. Semenza had another tie for second place in Derivatives and received an Honorable Mention in Advanced Grammar. Wang took second place in Mythology and tied for second place in Vocabulary.

Middle school competitors were no less impressive. In the MS-1 division, Lucy Ge, grade 6, took third place in Grammar I, while classmate Aaron Lo earned third place in History. Brandon Park, grade 6, was awarded second place in Mythology and an honorable mention in Derivatives. Grade 7 had a strong appearance in the MS-2 division, as Arohee Bhoja had first place wins in Vocabulary and Greeting Cards, and took second place in Grammar II and third in Reading Comprehension II. Angela Cai took first in Mythology and tied for second in Daily Life with classmate Jason Lin. Akshay Manglik took second place in three categories: Derivatives, History and Mythology. Annamma Vazhaeparambil won first place in History and second place in Greeting Cards, while Mariamma Vazhaeparambil had honorable mentions in Derivatives and Mythology. The MS-3 division, in which Harker’s grade 8 students participated, saw Ashley Duraiswamy take first place in Reading Comp II and tie for third in Grammar II, while Jeffrey Fung took first in History, second in Grammar II and third in Derivatives. Allison Jia had a first place win in Vocabulary and received an honorable mention in Derivatives, in which Kyle Li took first place in addition to taking first place in Mythology and second History. In Reading Comprehension II, Kalyan Narayanan took second place in addition to tying for third in Grammar II. Jin Tuan had second place finishes in Derivatives and Vocabulary, and George Wehner, grade 7, took first in Grammar II. Finally, Jasmine Wiese, grade 8, was awarded an honorable mention in Derivatives.