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Middle school teams and individuals earn high placings at MathCounts competition

Harker middle school students performed admirably at a recent chapter-level MathCounts competition, held Feb. 15 at the upper school. A team comprising grade 8 students Ethan Liu, Aniketh Tummala, Olivia Xu and William Zhang, coached by middle school math chair Vandana Kadam, took first place, making Harker the winning team in the Santa Clara chapter for the third consecutive year. The team will move on to the state competition, to be held March 21 at Stanford University.

Harker also had several stand-out individual performers, including Tummala, who took second place with 45 out of 46 points scored. Angela Liu, grade 7, placed fifth with a score of 44 and qualified for the state competition. Xu also scored 44 to finish in seventh place. Ethan Liu and William Zhang each scored 42 points and placed 10th and 12th, respectively. Eighth graders Emma Gao and Michelle Wei took 13th and 14th, respectively, with both students scoring 42 points. Eighth grader Joe Li placed 17th with a score of 41, Jonathan Xue, grade 7, finished in 19th with a score of 39 and Angelina Hu, grade 8, scored 37 to place 24th. Although several students scored the same number of points, tiebreakers were awarded to students who solved more difficult problems.

In addition to the main competitions, students also participated in the countdown round, in which students were given problems and a time limit of 45 seconds to solve each one. Xu emerged the winner, while Tummala took third and Zhang took fourth.

A total of 91 students from 11 schools competed at the event, which is considered to be one of the toughest chapter-level MathCounts competitions in the country.

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Middle school MathCounts students shine at state competition; one bound for nationals

At the MathCounts state competition on March 31 at Stanford University, the Harker middle school team of grade 8 students Alexander Hu, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao and seventh grader Sally Zhu won the state MathCounts championship in a field of 35 teams and 175 students. It was the fourth win for Harker at the state level, following wins in 2008, 2011 and 2014. Among individual competitors, Parthasarathy placed second overall after a tie-breaker, and Zhu placed fourth. Alexander Hu also turned in a great performance, placing 10th. Other standouts were Zhao, who finished in 25th, and Mark Hu, grade 8, placing 29th.

Another state-level competition was held concurrently for Southern California students, and the four highest-scoring students in the state qualified for the team that will represent California at the MathCounts National Competition this weekend in Washington, D.C.  Parthasarathy placed among the top four statewide to qualify for the National Competition. Zhu missed qualifying by the narrowest of margins, earning just a single point less than the student who made the California team.

“Most of these students have been with the MathCounts program for two years and the title of California state champions is well-deserved for each one of them,” said middle school math chair Vandana Kadam. “This is an incredible achievement for the students and for the school.”

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