Waterford Student Wins Utah State MathCounts Competition, Team Places Third

News provided by

The Waterford School

Apr 06, 2016, 18:00 ET


Sandy, UT (PRWEB) April 06, 2016 -- The Waterford Middle School math team placed third in Utah's State MathCounts competition against winners from regional competitions in Utah. Seventh grade Waterford student Tarun Kumar Martheswaran won the individual competition, advancing to the 2016 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition in Washington, D.C. on May 7-10, where he will represent Utah and The Waterford School.

The Waterford Middle School math team was comprised of students Tarun Kumar Martheswaran, Evan LaForge, Shilp Shah, and Hassan Qadir. The team was solely coached by Waterford sophomores Tanisha Martheswaran and Daniel South. This is the first year Waterford's team has been coached by Waterford students.

The individual MathCounts competition includes a written round and a Countdown round. The top ten students from the written round advance to the Countdown round. The top four students from the Countdown round qualify to the MathCounts National competition.

After the individual written round, Tarun Kumar Martheswaran was in eighth place. "It was intense and exciting to say the least," said Waterford Math Department Chair Nancy Woller. "Tarun Kumar began in the eighth spot and proceeded to knock off all seven ahead of him, taking first place in the Countdown round. His ability to think clearly and perform accurately and quickly under such pressure was remarkable, especially for a 7th grade student."

Waterford student Evan LaForge was tied for tenth following the written round. Due to a tie-breaker, however, Evan was not in the top ten who competed in the Countdown round.

Tarun Kumar Martheswaran will now compete in the National MathCounts Competition against 224 final Mathletes from 50 U.S. states and territories. According to their website, the MathCounts Foundation is a non-profit organization that strives to engage middle school students of all ability and interest levels in fun, challenging math programs, in order to expand their academic and professional opportunities.

Kia Mosenthal, The Waterford School, http://www.waterfordschool.org, +1 801-816-2224, [email protected]