The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS competitions were held on Saturday, Feb. 7, at Glasgow Middle School in Alexandria, and at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington. This year, because of the exceptionally large number of students participating, the Regional competition had to be split between two venues. The one held at Glasgow Middle School was a combined competition for Virginia Society of Professional Engineers’ (VSPE) Fairfax and George Washington Chapters, and the one at Thomas Jefferson Middle School was for the Northern VA Chapter. These chapters include schools in Fairfax and Arlington counties as well as the cities of Alexandria and Fairfax City.
More than 450 sixth through eighth grade students from 51 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
- Nysmith (Coach: JoMarie Broccoli); Students: Ajit Kadaveru, Shaan Bhandarkar, Ruchard Lun, and Abhishek Allamsetty
- Rachel Carson Middle School (Coach: Helen Hine); Students: Michael Huang, Neeyanth Kopparapu, Ryan Kim, and Nishanth Anand
- Lake Braddock Secondary School (Coach: Mitchell Luxenberg); Students: Jerry Li, Jenny Li, Alex Ahn, and Alan Zheng
George Washington Chapter
- Mark Twain Middle School (Coach: Michelle Kocis); Students: Mishka Philizaire, Noah Holloway, Nali Huynh, and Manna Haile
- South County Middle School (Coach: Gina Griffin-Evans); Students: Elizabeth Ling, Sheral Patel, Andrew Yoon, and Avyuk Dixit
- Glasgow Middle School (Coach: Sarah Hagan); Students: Nidhi Talasani, Rojo Ramiandrisoa, Ashleen Lee, and Efrata Tecle
Northern VA Chapter
- Longfellow Middle School (Coach: Mary Jo Clark); Students: Alex Chung, Aaditya Singh, Ben Kang, and Fred Zhang
- Haycock Elementary School (Coach: Mary Jo Clark); Students: Joshua Fu, Larry Shi, Tristan Ma, and Charlie Wu
- Lemon Road Elementary School (Coach: Mary Jo Clark); Students: Benjamin Yam, Christopher Kan, Srikar Gouru, and Aadith Charugundla
The top-scoring individuals in each chapter are the following:
Fairfax Chapter
- Michael Huang, Rachel Carson Middle School
- Yoseph Mak, Rachel Carson Middle School
- Ajit Kadaveru, Nysmith
- Neeyanth Kopparapu, Rachel Carson Middle School
George Washington Chapter
- Mishka Philizaire, Mark Twain Middle School
- Elizabeth Ling, South County Middle School
- Shera Patel, South County Middle School
- Noam Hollowan, Mark Twain Middle School
Northern VA Chapter
- Adam Ardeishar, Longfellow Middle School
- Alex Chung, Longfellow Middle School
- Aaditya Singh, Longfellow Middle School
- Ben Kang, Longfellow Middle School
The top two teams and top four individuals that are not on the top two teams from the Fairfax Chapter, and the winning team and top two individuals that are not on the winning team from each of the George Washington and Northern Virginia Chapters will advance to compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS competition to be held on April 4, 2015 at Deep Run High School 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. More than 6 million students across the U.S. have participated in MATHCOUNTS programs.
Additional information on the national MATHCOUNTS program is available at www.mathcounts.org.