About 250 students from 25 middle, intermediate and junior high schools in Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon and Monroe counties participated in the 31st annual Mathcounts Feb. 7 at Springhouse Middle School.

After students took written tests, the top 10 scoring students faced off in the countdown round, a "Jeopardy" style oral competition in the school auditorium.

The top 10 students Allison Fang, Matthew Liu, and Jeff Yi, Springhouse; Ishann Lal and James Wang, Eyer Middle School; Geoffrey Kleinberg, Lower Macungie Middle School; Alex Adams, Moravian Academy; and Daniel Li, Chris Secula and Julia Zheng, Nitschmann Middle School.

First place winner at the competition was Ishann Lal. He also won for top seventh grader.

Springhouse Middle School won first place in the team competition.

Winning third place in the team competition was Eyer Middle School.

Allision Fang, Springhouse; Julia Zheng, Nitschmann Middle School and Kristina Rinaldi, Pocono Mountain East Junior High School were named the top three females and won scholarships for math or science courses at Cedar Crest College, Allentown.

Other Lehigh County schools participating were Harrison Morton Middle School; Orefield Middle School; St. Ann School; St. Joseph the Worker School; St. Thomas Moore School; Southern Lehigh Middle School; Southern Lehigh Intermediate School; and The Swain School.

Prizes at the Lehigh Valley competition included scholarships for math and/or science courses at Cedar Crest College, Moravian College, Lafayette College and Lehigh Carbon Community College and Northampton County Community College.

Winners will advance to the state competition March 27 and 28, in Harrisburg.

This event, organized by the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the PA Society of Professional Engineers, is one of 20 Pennsylvania competitions.

Mathcounts, a program of the National Society of Professional Engineers, is a math enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state and territory to provide today's students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers.

The 2015 National Mathcounts Competition will take place May 8 in Boston, Mass.