Discovery team places first in MATHCOUNTS contest
The Discovery Math Team, shown after a tournament in January, includes Kim Dang, front from left, Chima Ugwuegbulam, Meenu Bhooshanan, Misa Ito, Aditi Limaye, Justin Byers, Warren He, Joshua Byers. Bernadette Parsons, center from left, Corey Tolbert, David Li, Taylor Beall, Marshall Wu, Alan Grissom, Kate Newberry. Sean Lee, back from left, Douglas Zhang, Tony Tian, Shantanu Kadam, Arnav Mathur and Jack Harbin. (CONTRIBUTED)
MADISON – Sometimes, a little wait is worth the effort. Inclement weather on Feb. 21 delayed the regional MATHCOUNTS Competition Series, but the Discovery Middle School Math Team grabbed first place when the meet was rescheduled on Feb. 27.
“We finally got to have the MATHCOUNTS chapter tournament,” Discovery math team coach and math teacher Julie Goldston said. “I am proud to announce that Discovery’s team of Justin Byers, Aditi Limaye, Tony Tian and Corey Tolbert won first place.”
The seven schools that participated in MATHCOUNTS were Challenger, Discovery, Liberty, Mountain Gap and Sparkman middle schools, Columbia Elementary School and Randolph School. Randolph hosted the event.
MATHCOUNTS is only open to students in grades 6-8. “They all compete against each other,” Goldston said.
In individual competition, David Li earned first-place honors. Other Discovery students in the Top Ten for individuals and qualifying to advance to state competition were Aditi Limaye, second place; Tony Tian, third; Corey Tolbert, fifth; Justin Byers, sixth; and Joshua Byers, seventh.
David Li and Joshua Byers will advance to the state contest based on individual scores. Aditi Limaye, Tony Tian, Corey Tolbert and Justin Byers will advance as part of the four-member Discovery team. All of these students are eighth-graders.
“Each school is allowed to send a team of four, plus six individuals,” Goldston said. “The top two teams advance to state, along with the top two individuals who did not advance as part of one of the top two teams.”
Seventh-graders from Discovery who also participated in the tournament were Lynne Clark, Michael Guthrie, Victoria Lee and David Teng. “They qualified to compete at this competition by being in the Top Ten of our entire group of 50 math team members,” Goldston said.
By placing second, Liberty also qualified to advance to state competition. All 10 state competitors from the Huntsville chapter are Madison City Schools students.
For more information, visit mathcounts.org.
