Mathcounts

Students from Community Middle and Grover Middle participated in the regional competition for New Jersey MATHCOUNTS on Saturday, February 4, at Reynolds Middle School in Hamilton. With 17 schools and more than 125 students participating, Grover placed second and Community was third place. Both schools are in contention for the two “wildcard” slots that are awarded to the top two scoring teams that did not win their regional competitions. The coach is Alice Doehner.##M:[more]##Community team members include Yiqing Kong, Anant Ghapure, Atarv Vaishs, and Daesun Yim. Grover team members include Michael Cao, Michael Wu, Ming-Ming Tran, and Daniel Xia.The competition allows each school to bring one “team” of four to compete for both individual and team awards, and up to four additional students who compete for individual awards, but are not considered for the team awards.Community individuals include Christopher Tian, Christine Yan, Gregory Solak, and Payal Marathe. Grover individuals include Rishi Narang, Kunal Desai, Avik Banerjee, and Elizabeth Yang.In addition to the team honors, numerous CMS and GMS students received individual honors. The following were the results at the end of the sprint, target, and countdown where the question is flashed onto a screen and competitors have up to 45 seconds to buzz in with a correct answer.First place, Daesun Yim (CMS); second place, Ming-Ming Tran (GMS); fifth place, Michael Wu (GMS); tenth place, Yiqing Kong (CMS); 11th place, Anant Ghapure (CMS); and 16th, Daniel Xia (GMS).“We practiced once a week after school until the teams and individuals were chosen in December, says Doehner. “At the beginning of January, we met collectively on Sunday afternoons for two hours and had our own in-house competitions. Parents volunteered to serve as timekeepers, snack servers, and general helping hands throughout these practices.”The state round will be held in Piscataway on Saturday, March 11. The top four contestants at the state competition will be invited to compete at the National competition held in the Washington, D.C., area this May.