The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS competition was held on Saturday, Feb. 6, at George Mason University. The regional competition combines the Fairfax, George Washington and Northern VA Chapters of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers. The top team and top students from each Chapter will compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS competition on March 19 in Richmond.
Over 400 sixth through eighth grade students from 48 elementary and middle schools competed at the events. These students have been practicing since the fall and were selected to represent their schools at the competitions. Students compete as school teams and as individuals.
The winning teams are the following schools, team members, and coach:
Fairfax Chapter
- Rachel Carson Middle School (Coach: Kristen Shebek); Students: Michael Huang, Neeyanth Kopparapu, Yoseph Mak, Richard Wang
- Frost Middle School (Coach: Maura Sleevi); Students: Dongyun Seo, Jungmin Shin, Kevin Wu, Zhiyao Zhang
- Joyce Kilmer Middle School (Coach: Kimberly Kardelis); Students: David Chen, Justin Han, William Xu, Benjamin Yam
George Washington Chapter
- South County Middle School (Coach: Gina Griffin-Evans); Students: Stephen Arndt, Jonathan Daniel, Avyuk Dixit, Andrew Yoon
- Mark Twain Middle School (Coach: Michelle Leath); Students: Nishanth Alladi, Alexander Davis, Aria Moss, Ella Nguyen
- Carl Sandburg Middle School (Coach: Nicole Yoder); Students: Thomas Cuddy, Amanda Hail, Chris Hewitt, Kenny Johnson
Northern VA Chapter
- Longfellow Middle School (Coach: Mary Jo Clark); Students: Alex Chung, Joshua Fu, Ben Kang, Austin Shi
- Haycock Elementary School (Coach: Mary Jo Clark); Students: Joaquim Das, William Jiang, Owen Rollins, Lillian Sun
- Williamsburg Middle School (Coach: Heather Willis); Students: Ryan Berry, Victoria Graf, Addison Phelps, Zhejia Yang
The top-scoring students in each chapter are the following:
Fairfax Chapter
- Michael Huang, Rachel Carson Middle School
- Neeyanth Kopparapu, Rachel Carson Middle School
- Zhiyao Zhang, Frost Middle School
- Richard Wang, Rachel Carson Middle School
George Washington Chapter
- Avyuk Dixit, South County Middle School
- Stephen Arndt, South County Middle School
- Andrew Yoon, South County Middle School
- Jonathan Daniel, South County Middle School
Northern VA Chapter
- Ben Kang, Longfellow Middle School
- Nicole Sim, Longfellow Middle School
- Alex Chung, Longfellow Middle School
- Larry Shi, Longfellow Middle School
The top two teams and top four students that are not on the top two teams from the Fairfax Chapter, along with the winning team and top two students that are not on the winning team from each of the George Washington and Northern VA Chapters, will advance to compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS competition to be held on March 19, Dominion Power facility in Glen Allen, Va.
MATHCOUNTS is a national middle school math enrichment program offering competition and club activities designed to foster appreciation of math among U.S. students so as to prepare students for future career opportunities and success. In our increasingly technological society, those students who do not begin developing strong problem-solving, logical thinking and analytical abilities in middle school will face an uphill battle later in life if they wish to pursue a medical, scientific, mathematical, engineering or technical career. As a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students, MATHCOUNTS prepares students for future career opportunities and success. More than 6 million students across the U.S. have participated in MATHCOUNTS programs.
The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS program is sponsored by Northrop Grumman Information Systems, Comcast NBCUniversal, The Association for Manufacturing Technology, Burgess & Niple, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts of Alexandria and individual engineer contributors. Leadership of the local MATHCOUNTS program is provided by members of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers.
The National Sponsors of MATHCOUNTS are Raytheon Company, Northrop Grumman Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation, Phillips 66, Texas Instruments Incorporated, 3Mgives, Art of Problem Solving and NextThought. MATHCOUNTS was founded in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation.
Additional information on the national MATHCOUNTS program is available at www.mathcounts.org.