Middle school mathletes compete in state contest in Lisle

Averages and fractions and percentages, prime numbers and geometry and exponents danced across a projector screen Saturday in Lisle as middle school students competing in the Illinois MATHCOUNTS contest raced to find the right answers.

The state contest was a qualifying round for a national competition to be held May 10-13 in Orlando, Fla., and a chance for 301 middle school mathletes from 77 schools to showcase their strongest problem-solving skills.

Contestants participated in individual and team categories, then the top 16 individuals got to compete in the head-to-head “Countdown Round” in front of hundreds of fellow mathletes, coaches and parents.

“It was tough. It's always tough,” said 13-year-old Joy Qiu of Naperville, who represented Scullen Middle Schoolin the countdown round. “But math is a lot of fun, and I really enjoy it.”

The winner of the countdown round and the individual competition was 13-year-old Kevin Sun of Naperville, who earned a perfect score on his 46-question written test.

“I think it was harder than normal,” Kevin said about the written test. “I wasn't expecting a 46.”

Illinois MATHCOUNTS coordinators said they weren't expecting him, or anyone else, to snag a perfect score. No one could remember the last time anybody did it.

Kevin will be joined on the team heading to nationals by second-place finisher Jung Huang of Vernon Hills, third-place finisher Sarvasva Raghuvanshi of Naperville and fourth-place finisher Brice Wang of Naperville.

Teams from other suburban middle schools such as Wheeling's Jack London Middle School, Barrington Middle School's Prairie Campus, and Glen Ellyn's Glen Crest Middle School also sent teams of young math whizzes to the competition, which is led by the National Society of Professional Engineers.

“We are really thrilled to be here,” Glen Crest coach and math teacher Monica Shekar said. “This is the second time in the last 10 years we've made it.”

Teams have to place in the top three or become a wild card at a regional contest in order to make the state competition.

The four members of the Glen Crest team who competed Saturday were excited to make state, but said the problems were tougher than they expected.

“The questions were a lot of things we don't learn in school,” said Avinash Panjwani, a 13-year-old eighth-grader.

But Avinash's teammate, 14-year-old eighth-grader Alban Dulaj, said it's still fun to try to solve tough problems.

“I just like figuring out stuff, thinking of a way to find a solution.”