March 18, 2005 — The state Mathcounts competition brought the winners from two chapter competitions together Thursday to work for the ultimate reward — a slot at the nationals.
First place winner was Brian Oldfield, eighth grade, from Antilles School. Dylan Genest, eighth grade, from Country Day School took second place. Third place winner was Allen George from Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School. Fourth place went to Kristian Fennessy, sixth grade, and fifth place to Adrian Conner, eighth grade, both from The Good Hope School. Elaina Wilson, eighth grade from V.I. Montessori School took sixth place.
The top four winners are on their way to the national Mathcounts competition in Detroit, Mich., to be held on May 6.
St. Croix's Country Day School was the winning team. Their coach, Kate Becker, will accompany the winning individuals to nationals.
Third place winner Allan George, in his third year of competition, is a Mathcounts veteran. The thought of going to nationals makes him "too happy for words," said George. "I think I did very well. It comes naturally but I have to practice to keep it up."
Allan's coach, Rupert Buchanan was very proud of Allan's performance. "He's a good student," Buchanan said. "I tell my students, the others are students just like you. Anyone could win, so we're hoping for a win."
Sixteen mathletes from Antilles, Country Day, Bertha C. Boschulte, Sts. Peter and Paul, V.I. Montessori, Elena Christian Junior High, St. Patrick's, and The Good Hope schools were present for a day of fast calculating. Individual scores aren't published because it's about encouraging involvement.
"Ideally every student should be involved. These are among the best students who are interested in competing in academic events," said Ludence Romney, district mathematics coordinator.
The competition consisted of the Sprint Round, where individuals worked on 30 problems for 40 minutes. The target round consisted of multi-step problems in mathematical reasoning. In the team round, teams worked together to solve problems. Lastly, the countdown round, a fast paced oral competition for top scoring individuals of the previous rounds. Winners in the countdown round were Dylan Genest, Adrian Conner, Allan George and Kristian Fennessy.
Romney is already thinking about next year's competition. He's always trying to encourage new schools to get involved. "We're growing, every year we have more schools. This year we had 13 in the chapter competition, and I have 12 more I'm targeting."
For more about the national Mathcounts program, log onto www.Mathcounts.org.

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