Maria Burke here: Last Saturday, January 24, the members of the MUS math department hosted the fifth annual Mathcounts school competition for our area’s “mathletes.” By 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, about 100 mathletes and coaches had gathered in the Wunderlich Auditorium to launch the process which determines “who’s going to make it to Regionals next weekend at CBU?”
Coach Loyal Murphy had delivered his last words of wisdom and encouragement to our MUS mathletes as they were facing down the challenge of the Target Round, Sprint Round and the demanding Team Round. Of course our own Darin Clifft had an official superman cape to wear as he acted as emcee for the days events. The rest of the mathletes and coaches settled for “supermath” t-shirts.
The final day’s competition ends with the ever-popular Countdown Round. William Hoehn got the nod to represent MUS, and with buzzer in hand, he blitzed through to all opponents until the final round. We all cheered as he captured second place and received a medal to remember the day that his nerves stood the test.
Good luck to our team who will be chosen from our middle school mathletes: Jared Ashkenaz, Walker Bussey-Spencer, William Hoehn, Srujan Jampana, Farhan Kathawala, Andrew Renshaw, Scott Sanders, Sam Shankman, Nathan Vogt, Matthew Gayoso, William Lamb, Garret Sullivan, and Tejvir Vaghela.
This day is clearly one for the mathletes, including those guests who came to MUS as students from area schools. This event offers a unique opportunity for the mathletes, but, moreover, it is a rare chance for their coaches to interact in the unique environment. Each visiting team coach was treated by the math department in a spirit of professional encouragement as they dined on Mrs. Moore’s famous pear cake. The teamwork among colleagues was also worthy of note.
At the end of the day, everyone knew that the individual mathlete was challenged and honored. All math faculty should be commended for giving unselfishly of their time, and we look forward to hosting the event in the future.