Derek Zheng, Yash Bhavsar, James Zender and Charlie Mitchell of the William Allen Middle School MathCounts team won first place at the Ocean-Burlington Chapter Competition earlier this year.
Tara Kortman and Allison Longmuir, math teachers at the middle school, have been the advisors of MathCounts for 16 years. According to Kortman, MathCounts – open to all Allen students – is a national middle-school organization for kids who enjoy math.
This year’s Allen team members are Zheng, Lillian Meehan, Vedant Yadau, Bhavsar, Mitchell, Khushi Khurana, Elena Ray, Sahasra Mandala, Zender, Alexander Tsai, Sandro Boujaunde and Salin Shah.
Although Zheng, Bhavsar, Zender and Mitchell placed first overall, all 12 team members participated in additional rounds. The top-10 individual finishers were Zheng (first place overall), Bhavsar (fourth place overall), Mandala (sixth place overall), Ray (seventh place overall) and Khurana (10th place overall).
“It really is just so lovely to see the reaction of the students when their hard work paid off,” Longmuir said of co-coaching the team. “ … To see how proud they are is wonderful.”
The Ocean-Burlington Chapter Competition is divided into three events: a sprint-round test of 30 questions that must be answered in 40 minutes with no calculator; a target round of eight questions students must answer two at a time in six minutes; and a team competition where four students work together to answer 10 questions.
All event scores are added up, and the top-10 students participate in a countdown round, where two of them face each other to answer three questions correctly.
“The team that we had this year, they did practice problems on their own, so they met on Friday and Saturday nights at each other’s houses and quizzed each other on math, in addition to the twice-a-week process that we do at school,” Kortman noted.
“ … It was pretty fantastic watching them get to run down and get their trophies for winning first place.”
Zheng, Bhavsar, Zender and Mitchell shared their initial feelings about the regional competition at Ocean County College.
“I feel like we were all super excited, because all the hard work and effort that we put in finally paid off and winning feels so good, and we all know we all had what it took to win, so I think that was really a big part of it,” Bhavsar recalled.
“ … We didn’t expect to be at the top; we thought we could be in the top three or four,” Zheng remarked, “but we ended up being number one,” Zheng said.
“During the countdown-round, I did not like the team’s odds of getting to the state round, which happened (the team advanced to the state competition at Monmouth County College), so I was kind of surprised but then also happy at the same time,” Zender said.
“I found that I sort of expected us to move on, and I found that I would be proud of myself if we didn’t move on,” Mitchell said, “but that expectation just set the bar for the day. My main focus, personally, was on the team rather than individually, so I was proud of myself and my teammates for moving on, and I felt that we met expectations pretty well.”
All four students praised Kortman and Longmuir for their coaching and emphasized how both teachers instill passion, dedication and perseverance in their students.
“I think one thing that always stuck with us was, try your best and don’t expect to win, because you’re competing against the smartest kids in the entire area, so if you go and give your best foot forward, that’s what matters the most,” Bhavsar said of advice from Kortman and Longmuir.
Zheng recommends students consider joining MathCounts, as he believes it’s a good way to enhance thinking.
“Even if you don’t get in or you don’t like it,” Zheng advises, “I would say still try to at least think more outside the box, be more efficient in your time and appreciate others and think more about others.”
