After a second-place finish at regionals, the Uni MathCounts team will compete in Matteson on March 4

Posted Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006, The OG, student awards

Uni's subfreshman MathCounts team finished second at the regional competition held Saturday at Everitt Lab on the University of Illinois campus. East Prairie of Tuscola took first place.

The subbie team consisted of Tej Chajed, Daniel Cheng, Amy Ding, Diana Liu, Kelly Mover, Daniel Wilson, and Chris Yoder.

MathCounts is a national mathematics coaching and competition program for middle school students. Illinois, which has one of the largest MathCounts programs in the country, won the 2004 national championship with the help of Uni student Alex Zhai, now a sophomore.

Each MathCounts competition consists of a sprint round (40 minutes for 30 questions, calculators not permitted); a target round (four rounds with two problems each, each set of problems requiring several steps, calculators allowed); a team round (10 problems that team members work together to solve, calculators allowed); and a countdown round (a fast-paced oral competition in which one representative from each team squares off against a competitor from another team and has 30 seconds to come up with a correct answer, calculators not permitted). Cheng represented Uni in the countdown round.

Chajed, Cheng, Liu, and one other Uni team member will advance to the state competition in Matteson on March 4. Math teacher Gene Bild is team sponsor.

— Gargoyle staff