Discovery takes second place in MATHCOUNTS tourney

(CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – The math team at Discovery Middle School competed against nine other schools at the MATHCOUNTS chapter tournament on Feb. 1.

MATHCOUNTS is open to students in grades 6-8. Ten schools with 72 students participated in the chapter tourney.

Discovery earned second-place honors. “Randolph School’s team beat us by 1.75 points,” coach and math teacher Julie Goldston said.

“Randolph had a team member with an almost perfect score. He won first place individually and the countdown round, which is a bracket style contest between the top 12 individuals,” Goldston said. “My kids tell me the Randolph winner is taking algebra II this year.”

Six Discovery students were among the top 12 individuals, with Shantanu Kadam placing second in the countdown round. “The countdown round is just for fun at this level but will be used at the national level to officially rank the top 12,” Goldston said.

Individual awards at this chapter competition went to Discovery students Alan Grissom, second place; Shantanu Kadam, third; Aditi Limaye, fourth; David Li, seventh; Joshua Byers, eighth; and Justin Byers, tenth.

The tournament’s top twenty included Tony Tian, Corey Tolbert, Sean Lee and Marshall Wu from Discovery.

Discovery’s tournament team members were Grissom, Limaye, Li and Tian. “Since the top three four-people teams advance to the state competition, they will all be competing in Montgomery on March 15,” Goldston said.

“After the top three teams are pulled from the pool of 72 participants, the remaining top three individuals also advance to the state competition,” Goldston said. “Shantanu was in first place out of that pool, so he advances to the state level.”