A pair of West Liberty Middle School eighth grade students advanced to the national MATHCOUNTS Foundation competition Thursday, March 25, winning a virtual state competition, according to advisor Jackie Henderson.
Seth Axsom and Caden Laughlin solved what Henderson called “hard core math problems” for about 90 minutes in the state competition usually held in Des Moines. The Raytheon Technologies MATHCOUNTS National Competition, however, is hoped to be an in-person event to be held May 8-11 in Washington, D.C.
“They did great and we are sure proud of them,” said Henderson, noting it’s “quite unique” the school would have two representing the West Liberty chapter. She said national qualifying results will be available April 1 to determine advancing to the national level.
West Liberty opened the Chapter Competition with four students including Eric Yao, Pearson Hall, Caden Laughlin and Seth Axsom. The top scoring student from each school and the top 20 percent of individuals from each chapter advance to the Chapter Invitational. “Caden and Seth both advanced which involved taking another test in the same format on Feb. 25. They both qualified for state from that test,” Henderson explained, noting only the top five highest scoring students from each chapter moved on to state competition. The students basically take a math exam with the highest scores advancing to the next level.
Henerson said there were two sections to the test this year. “One is a sprint round that is 40 minutes and 30 problems with no calculators – problems focus on speed and accuracy. The other round is called the target round which is 30 minutes and eight problems with calculators,” she said. “The problems focus on problem solving and mathematical reasoning.”
Henderson said West Liberty has been participating in MATHCOUNTS competitions for at least two decades.
The MATHCOUNTS competition cultivates talent in the nation’s brightest young minds, bringing together students from all 50 states in a series of in-person contests, claimed to be the only competition program of its kind, started in 1983 when the foundation was established and the first competition was launched. The first competition was actually held the following year at George Washington University in May with 47 states participating.