About 213 students from 26 middle, intermediate and junior high schools in four counties registered to compete in the 36th annual Lehigh Valley MATHCOUNTS® Feb. 8 at Trexler Middle School, 851 N. 15th St., Allentown.

Manarah Islamic Academy, Whitehall, received the Best Rookie School award at the competition. The school was represented by Principal Nahed El-Seify, coach Hatice Saymaz, Aymaan Rahman, Muhammad Rhodus, Talha Ahmed and Maryam Farag.

Students took written tests 9:15-11:45 a.m. in the gymnasium. The top-10-scoring students faced off in the countdown round - a “Jeopardy”-style oral competition - 1 p.m. in the school auditorium. A sample question was, “A set of distinct positive integers has a total of 11 digits, and all the digits are ones. What is the smallest possible sum of the integers in the set?” The answer was 11,234.

Organized by Lehigh Valley Chapter of the PA Society of Professional Engineers for students in Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon and Monroe counties, the event is one of about 20 Pennsylvania competitions. Regional winners advance to the state competition, to be held March 13 and 14 in Harrisburg. Students and coaches devote many after-school hours to prepare for what some have called the Olympics of Math. The 2020 National MATHCOUNTS® competition will take place in Orlando, Fla., May 9-12 with Raytheon Corporation as the title sponsor. Nationwide, approximately 40,000 students representing more than 5,500 schools will participate in the 2020 MATHCOUNTS competition.

More than 60 volunteers from the engineering profession worked to make the event a success.

Lehigh County schools participating in the event were Manarah Islamic Academy, Eyer Middle School, Harrison Morton Middle School, Lower Macungie Middle School, Orefield Middle School, Saint Thomas More School, Southern Lehigh Middle School, Springhouse Middle School, Saint Ann School (Emmaus), Saint Joseph the Worker School, Saint Theresa School, The Swain School and JP Liberati Intermediate School.

Schools from Northampton County included East Hills Middle School, Easton Area Middle School, Nitschmann Middle School, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Broughal Middle School, St. Anne School (Bethlehem) and Saucon Valley Middle School.

Monroe County schools included Clear Run Intermediate School, Pocono Mountain East Junior High School, Pocono Mountain West Junior High School and Swiftwater Intermediate School.

Palmerton Area Junior High School in Carbon County also participated.

The top 10 individuals included Kevin Yao, Springhouse Middle School, first place; Ryan Wu, Springhouse Middle School, second place; Keller Yan, Southern Lehigh Middle School, third place; Matthew You, Easton Area Middle School, fourth place; Ben Broadhead, Saucon Valley Middle School, fifth place; Sophie Karlson, Southern Lehigh School District, sixth place; Jeffrey Holzbaur, Saucon Valley Middle School, seventh place; Brandon Cai, Springhouse Middle School, eighth place; Jonathan You, Easton Area Middle School, ninth place; and Hansen Fan, Southern Lehigh Middle School, 10th place.

Cedar Crest College presented the three top-scoring young women with a math or science course in their junior or senior year of high school, including Sophie Karlson, Southern Lehigh Middle School; Ellie Corvino, Southern Lehigh Middle School; and Lila Shelton, Pocono Mountain East Middle School.

Moravian College, Lafayette College, Lehigh Carbon Community College and Northampton Community College also provided top winners with scholarships for mathematics courses.

The top 10 teams included Springhouse Middle School, first place; Southern Lehigh Middle School, second place; Easton Area Middle School, third place; Saucon Valley Middle School, fourth place; Pocono Mountain East Middle School, fifth place; Orefield Middle School, sixth place; The Swain School, seventh place; Eyer Middle School, eighth place; St. Anne School, Bethlehem, ninth place; and Lower Macungie Middle School, 10th place.

MATHCOUNTS was established in 1983 by National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Insurance. Today, it is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes math enrichment. The program is available to every U.S. state and territory with the objective of providing today’s students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers.