By LISA DRAPER

Special to The Press

On Feb. 8, approximately 200 middle school students from 22 Lehigh Valley schools and three counties participated in the 42nd annual MATHCOUNTS regional competition at Eyer Middle School, Macungie.

The Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers sponsored the event.

MATHCOUNTS is a national math coaching and competition program for students in grades six through eight.

This collaboration of educational, business, and technological communities has impacted millions of students throughout its 40 year history.

The program “promotes interest and ability in math by making math excellence as challenging, exciting, and prestigious as achievement in sports.”

Coaches and their students began preparation for this “Olympics of Math” event last fall.

Students have to be prepared to answer questions involving basic arithmetic, logic, probability, statistics, linear algebra, polynomials, and number series.

In January, coaches administered in-school competitions to identify their teams.

The regional competition determines the winning team, as well as the four highest ranking individuals from the Countdown Round, and the top two highest individuals who were not part of the winning team.

Six to eight students will compete at the state level competition held March 22 in Harrisburg.

The top students from Pennsylvania will compete in Washington, D.C. on May 11-12 for national honors.

Raytheon Corporation is the title sponsor of the national event that will draw 30,000 students representing more than 5,500 schools.

MATHCOUNTS Coordinator Kevin T. Campbell addressed the audience telling them the engineering profession “needs more engineers” and that if they choose to become an engineer, “they will always have a job.”

Campbell is president and CEO of the Barry Isett Company, a multidisciplinary engineering company in Allentown.

Campbell noted the importance of mathematics in our world today.

A part of MATHCOUNTS since its inception, Campbell continues to encourage the nation’s youth to help them realize the significance of mathematics in all aspects of life.

Campbell thanked coaches, parents, society members, volunteers, contributors, and especially the participants, for continuing to demonstrate how important math is to our futures.

Participants began with the Sprint Round which is a 40-minute test where students answer 30 math problems without a calculator.

After a short break, participants proceeded with the Target Round, a problem-solving round that tests students’ mathematical reasoning.

Students were given four pairs of problems to solve and six minutes to complete each pair.

Calculators were permitted in this segment of the competition.

This lasted 40 minutes with a short break that followed.

The team round included four individuals who worked together to solve 10 problems in 20 minutes.

While top scores were determined, students enjoyed lunch.

A raffle drawing was held after lunch in which 25 students won passes to Dorney Park.

Two of the 25 students actually won twice.

During this time, Campbell recognized Vice President of LVPSPE Alexa Rooney and volunteer Cheryl Rishcoff who are female engineers.

He stressed the importance of engaging more young women into the professional engineering field.

Next came the Countdown Round which takes the high-scoring individuals and has them compete head-to-head until a champion is identified.

This portion was moderated by past LVPSPE past-president Al Dezubay.

No calculators were permitted and students had 45 seconds to complete complex math problems in front of an intense audience.

In random order, the Top 10 students selected for the Countdown Round were: Helen Si, Springhouse, Jackson Andreoli, East Hills, Silas DeCamp, Easton Area, Aanya Agrawal, Southern Lehigh, Vihaan Ro, Springhouse, Andy Xie, Southern Lehigh, Wesley Luo, Springhouse, Caleb Yu, Eyer, Aryash Shyam, Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School, and Max Yang, Springhouse.

In the beginning rounds of the Countdown Round, students could answer one question correctly and move on to the next round.

The first round pitted Caleb Yu, of Eyer, against Aryash Shyam, of Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School.

Shyam could have moved on first, but unfortunately he failed to answer the question using a rounded number.

Perhaps the competition could include a warm up for all 10 students to get their nerves released before beginning the actual competition?

With Shyam out, Yu next defeated Silas DeCamp from Easton Area.

Andy Xie, of Southern Lehigh, was next to challenge Yu, but could not beat him.

In Round 4, Jackson Andreoli, of East Hills, defeated Caleb Yu.

Andreoli took on Vihaan Rao of Springhouse.

The score was tied at two and the excitement was building for the audience and the participants.

Andreoli pulled out the win by answering three questions correctly.

It was now Max Yang’s, of Springhouse, turn to take the seat made vacant by his fellow team member.

Yang answered three questions correctly, forcing Andreoli off the stage.

Aanya Agrawa, of Southern Lehigh took the stage next to challenge Yang but Yang’s clean sweep of three correct responses kept him there for another round.

Helen Si, of Springhouse, now sat next to her teammate as his competitor.

Yang appeared happy and confident when Si left the stage.

Perhaps Yang was looking forward to taking on his other teammate Wesley Luo, of Springhouse?

In this last matchup of the Countdown Round, it took six questions, and the three answered correctly were by Wesley Luo.

Yang lasted the longest for four rounds of competition, but it was Luo’s one round that crowned him the MATHCOUNTS regional champion.

Yang answered nine total questions correctly throughout the earlier rounds compared to Luo’s three questions in the final round.

Yang is to be commended for lasting the longest of all 10 competitors at this stage of competition.

Because Luo answered the final three questions correctly in the last round, he is recognized as the MATHCOUNTS regional champion.

Springhouse’s Helen Si was recognized as the Top Scoring Sixth Grade Student in the competition.

Her teammate Vihaan Rao was named Top Scoring Seventh Grade Student.

We expect to see him return next year as well.

Perhaps with more experience, one of these two could be a champion in the future?

The Top Female Scorers in this competition were Helen Si, of Springhouse, Aayana Agrawal, of Southern Lehigh, and Rebecca Wilks, of Eyer.

In addition to Wilks being recognized, the Eyer team earned the award for Most-Improved Team.

Competing for the first time and as the competition’s first charter school entry, the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School earned the Rookie Team Award and the Honorable Mention Award.

Moravian Academy earned the top small/private school award.

These Top 10 middle school students were recognized with awards: Wesley Luo, Max Yang, Helen Si and Vihaan Rao, all from Springhouse, Coach Kevin Hallman, Aayana Agrawal and Andy Xie, both from Southern Lehigh, Coaches Charu Chaturvedi and Ella Scheinler, Jackson Andreoli, East Hills, Coaches Shawn Collier and Sophia Dubrovskaya, Caleb Yu, Eyer, Coach Julie Hummell, Silas DeCamp, Easton Area, Coaches Eric Adams and Zoe Boekelheide, Aryash Shyam, and Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School, Coaches Kerry Go and Charles Raeford.

Springhouse has dominated the 12 of the past 20 years at the regional level and maintaining a winning streak of the title of No. 1 team since 2017, and their streak continues under Coach Kevin Hallman.

The top scoring schools include: Springhouse, Parkland School District, Coach Kevin Hallman, Eyer, East Penn School District, Coach Julie Hummell, Southern Lehigh, Southern Lehigh School District, Coaches Charu Chaturvedi and Ella Scheinler, Easton Area, Easton Area School District, Coaches Eric Adams and Zoe Boekelheide, Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School, Allentown School District, Coaches Kerry Go and Charles Raeford, and Saucon Valley, Saucon Valley School District, Coach Amanda Holveck.

Students participating at the state level competition in Harrisburg on March 22 will include: Helen Si, Wesley Luo, Vihaan Rao, and Max Yang, all from Springhouse Middle School.

Prizes awarded included scholarships for math and/or science courses at Cedar Crest College, Moravian University, Lafayette College, Lehigh Carbon Community College and Northampton College.