February 17, 2012
Last weekend Zane Boyer, Logan Harris, Douglas Dean, Denver Waclawski , Ben Kettle, and I went up to Anchorage for the annual Math Counts competition. Zane, Logan, Douglas and I were on the official team while Denver and Ben were official individuals.
When we first got to the meet, we went into a large room with a bunch of other kids from 11 other schools. After we registered, the competition soon began. We each sat at different tables with kids from the other schools. The parents and coaches then had to leave the auditorium. The first round we did was the Sprint Round; it was 40 minutes long and consisted of 30 questions. After the round all the kids excitedly awaited the answers.
After a short break, the Target Round, which is eight questions in groups of two, started. We were allowed to use calculators and had six minutes to complete each set of two. When the round was over, it was time for the Team Round. The official team all sat together and we got right to work. The round was designed so that no one person could finish all the questions, so we had to divide up the problems between the team. After 30 minutes of hard work, the round was over.
We took a break for lunch which was pizza and nervously anticipated the results. After lunch it was time for the Countdown Round, which is where they take the 12 highest scoring people and have them compete two at a time until only one person is left. Homer’s very own Douglas Dean competed in this round. Finally it was time to see the results; we sat at our table nervously.
At first they announced first, second and third place overall. None of us placed in this round but we were more excited about seeing if we placed in the Team Round. First they announced 4th place; it wasn’t us. Then they were about to announce 3rd place. We couldn’t wait to see if it was us; if it was then we would get to go to Juneau! When they said “Homer Middle” we were ecstatic! We went up and got our trophies and had our photo taken. We sat through the rest of the placing so excited. That day we drove back to Homer very eager to go to the state competition.
— Kenny Cortez, 8th grade student at HMS, member of the Math Counts team
Thank you to Math Counts coach Sara Reinhert
