Team Minnesota! brings home honors from National MATHCOUNTS Competition in Orlando
Team members from Minnetonka Middle School East, Wayzata Central Middle School, Chippewa Middle School (Shoreview), and Kellogg Middle School (Rochester) show that Math Counts in Minnesota!
St. Paul, MN. The four top-ranked middle-school mathletes who make up Team Minnesota! placed 16th in the 2023 National MATHCOUNTS Competition in Orlando May 14-15. Minnesota’s team competed against 224 mathletes from teams representing all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico and Department of Defense and State Department schools.
Coach Jack Failor from Kellogg Middle School in Rochester, MN, said the national competition is important to the mathletes – and to the future of STEM education. “This event is important to mathletes because they get to see and be inspired by peers who are like-minded. Mathletes, especially those who qualify to compete at the national level, will be the future of STEM education and could make a positive difference leading to a better world.” Failor added a special note of thanks to MATHCOUNTS alumni, Golden Peng and Aurora Wang, who served as assistant national team coaches this year.
Katie Jamieson, Minnesota MATHCOUNTS Executive Director, joined Failor in congratulating Team Minnesota!, adding, “Minnesota’s mathletes are among the best in the nation as this competition has shown. I want to thank Minnesota’s great coaches, wonderful sponsors and extraordinary volunteers for all they do to make sure MATHCOUNTS is available to middle-school students across the state.”
Team Minnesota! members
- Eric Ding, Kellogg Middle School (Rochester)
- Michael Luo, Minnetonka Middle School East
- Jefferson Zhou, Wayzata Central Middle School
- Austin Wang, Chippewa Middle School (Shoreview)
National MATHCOUNTS Champion
Channing Tatum, a 13-year-old seventh grader from Sugar Land, Texas, won the National MATHCOUNTS Competition. Channing answered this Countdown Round question in 7 seconds: “Erika cuts one pound of fudge into pieces to share with her friends. She divides the fudge into seven small pieces and three large pieces. If each large piece is three times as large as each small piece, how many pounds does one of the large pieces weigh?” (The answer is 3/16.)