Continues to States
By: Keith Bergman, PE
For top finishers, the completion of the local chapter competition of MathCOUNTS means on to the State Competition. This year the MathCOUNTS 2007 State Competition was held on Friday and Saturday, March 23-24, at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel in Chocolate Town, PA. The Valley Forge and Bucks County PSPE local chapters were well represented by our local schools mathletes.
Similar to the local competition, the mathletes and schools compete against each other in the Sprint Round, Target Round and Team Rounds. The test scores are graded and the competitors are ranked, with the top finishers moving on to the Countdown Round. As the Countdown Round progresses the rankings of the individuals is determined by head to head competition.
At the completion of the State competition this year the Valley Forge and Bucks County Chapters had three schools that placed in the Top 10. The first place finisher for the third year in a row was also from the Valley Forge Chapter area, Sandy Run Middle School. This elite team was coached by Sandra Van Horn. The participating mathletes were Kevin Li, Ben Zauzmer, Michelle Eng, and Andrew Zeng. Finishing in fourth place was a school from the Valley Forge Chapter area, Wissahickon Middle School. This team was coached by Troy Deckebach. The participating mathletes were Akshay Chitturi, Anderson Wang, Linda Gao, and Crystal Qin. Finishing in eighth place was a school from the Bucks Chapter area, New Hope - Solebury Middle School. This team was coached by Phyllis Smith. The participating mathletes were Wesley Michaels, Joshua DeMent, Sam Present, and Kevin Li.
At the completion of the Countdown Round, the Top 4 Finishers go onto the National Competition to represent the State of Pennsylvania. This year two of the mathletes representing Pennsylvania at the National Event were local to our area. Finishing second was Matthew Rauen from Pennwood Middle School representing the Bucks County Chapter, and finishing in fourth place was Ben Zauzmer from Sandy Run Middle School representing the Valley Forge Chapter.
On behalf of the Valley Forge and Bucks County Chapters of PSPE, I would like to wish the best of luck to those continuing to the National Competition and thank all of you that participated and volunteered your time and efforts to make the program such a success. For more information about MathCOUNTS visit there website at http://www.mathcounts.org/