Math Team members advance to state competition

Five Edina middle school Math Team members are advancing to the state MATHCOUNTS competition that will take place Saturday, March 9, 2019. After a competitive Minnesota Junior High Math League (MNJHML) season, in which Valley View Middle School’s (VVMS) Math Team earned 912 points out of a maximum 1040 points, the team continued to the Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition and placed first.

Each level of MATHCOUNTS competition consists of two individual rounds called the Sprint and Target round. During the Sprint round, contestants are tasked with solving 30 problems in 40 minutes without the use of a calculator. In the Target round contestants have six minutes for each of the 4 pairs of problems they are given. The team round is last and team members solve 10 problems in 20 minutes. Contestants are permitted to use a calculator in the Target round and team round.

VVMS’S team not only placed first in the team round, but four of the team members placed as the top four individuals in the individual rounds. Eighth grader, Kevin Yi placed first, followed by eighth grader Adiwn Shi and seventh grader Henry Zheng who tied for second place, and eighth grader Bob Zhang who placed fourth. All four individuals will compete in the state MATHCOUNTS competition.

Margaret Schlukebier, who has been the math team coach for VVMS since fall of 2006, is extremely proud of her students’ accomplishments. “In all of my years of coaching, a 1-2-3-4, technically a 1-2-2-4, very rarely happens and has never happened to Valley View as long as I have coached our team,” said Schlukebier.

South View Middle School (SVMS) will also send a student to the state competition. Eighth grader, Max Herigis is the first student at SVMS in nearly a decade competing in the MATHCOUNTS series. “It’s overwhelming and amazing,” said Schlukebier. “Edina will be strongly represented at this year’s MATHCOUNTS state competition.”