The 22nd annual Diana Nichols Harker Math Invitational for grades 6 to 8, held March 18, was a highly successful event with 18 schools and about 380 contestants taking part in individual and team contests. There were 60 competing and six non-competing teams for the team contest.
In individual competition, Harker’s Jeffery Wang placed fourth in the grade 7 category, while Hengrui Liang and Haofang Zhu took first and second, respectively, in the grade 8 category, with Zhu tying for second place.
In teams, Harker sixth graders Taddy Fujimura, Mark Han, Rafa deGoma, Ethan Weyn, Eric G. Zhang, Lucas Zhang and Jocelyn Zhao placed second in the grade 6 category. In the grade 8 category, Kevin Chen, Audrey Hu, Aaron Luo, Ryan Miao, Lily Peng, Sanjith Senthil and Haofang Zhu placed third.
The full results are found below.
Scores for individual winners have been placed in brackets with the total from actual questions followed by any bonus questions. All ties were broken according to difficulty level of questions.
Individual Event
Grade 6: 25 total possible points
Rank
Name of Student
Name of School
1
Charlie Huang (18 + 4)
The King’s Academy
2
Austin Jin (18 + 0)
BASIS Independent Silicon Valley
3
Katherine Li (17 + 2)
Kennedy Middle School
4
Keith Li (16 + 2)
BASIS Fremont
5
William Mao (16 + 2)
Stratford Preparatory, Blackford
Grade 7: 30 total possible points
Rank
Name of Student
Name of School
1
Michael Tang (24 + 4)
Miller Middle School
2
Sophia Fan (23 + 0)
Miller Middle School
3
Calvin Strohmann (22 + 2)
Kennedy Middle School
4
Jeffery Wang (22 + 1)
The Harker School
5
Henry Wang (22 + 0)
Miller Middle School
Grade 8: 30 total possible points
Rank
Name of Student
Name of School
1
Hengrui Liang (20 + 4)
The Harker School
2 (tie)
Haofang Zhu (20 + 1)
The Harker School
2 (tie)
Benjamin Zhang (20 + 0)
Miller Middle School
4
Ian Chen (19 + 2)
Miller Middle School
5
Ashmit Arasada (19 + 0)
Miller Middle School
Team Contest
Team Members
School
Place
Grade
Chloe Chen, Katherine Li, Brianna Su, Ashita Thakkar, Natalie Yao, Justin Zhang and Ella Zheng
Kennedy Middle School
6D
First
6
Taddy Fujimura, Mark Han, Rafa deGoma, Ethan Weyn, Eric G. Zhang, Lucas Zhang and Jocelyn Zhao
The Harker School
6P
Second
6
Emma Jin, Charlie Huang, Kaden Leong, Isaac Chi, Dylan wan, Fiona Wu and Aidan Zhang
The King’s Academy
6N
Third
6
Sophia Fan, Tanish Kolhe, Ishaan Mittal, Michael Tang, Henry Wang, Frank Xia and Hanyu Zhang
Miller Middle School
7J
First
7
Kevin Chen, Bryan Ge, Joseph He, Zheng Sheng He, Xuanyi Ma, Adya Seker and Calvin Strohmann
Kennedy Middle School
7G
Second
7
Gopal Deshpande, Victoria Huang, Sean Huang, Catherine Jian, Tianlin Liu, Yunfei Xia and Leo Zhang
Miller Middle School
7K
Third
7
Ashmit Arasada, Andy Chen, Ian Chen, Christopher Lu, Nitin Vaka, Benjamin Zhang and Shannon Zhang
Miller Middle School
8G
First
8
Rehan Babu, Yutong Chen, Theeran Sathish Kumar, Qixuan Mu, Elaina Pan, Sohum Uttamchandani and Derek Wang
Kennedy Middle School
8F
Second
8
Kevin Chen, Audrey Hu, Aaron Luo, Ryan Miao, Lily Peng, Sanjith Senthil and Haofang Zhu
The Harker Math Club, coached by upper school math teacher Anu Aiyer, just won the fall 2022 high school Math Madness championship. It was the club’s first time winning the competition since 2015. Held by AreteLabs, the biannual online competition consists of four league rounds and six tournament bracket rounds. Teams compete in 30-minute matches with two teams facing off at a time. Teachers schedule the times for their teams to complete the seven or eight multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions that make up each match. Approximately 20,000 students participate in Math Madness competitions each year.
Last weekend, at the 14th annual Math Prize for Girls competition, held at MIT, junior Olivia Xu (pictured, center) placed 11th out of 240 competitors, earning a $300 prize, and junior Catherine Li received an honorable mention. As top 36 placers, Xu and Li are eligible to compete in the Math Prize Olympiad.
Invitations to the competition were extended to the top 300 girls who participated in last year’s American Math Competition (AMC). Competitors were tasked with answer 20 short-answer questions in two-and-a-half hours.
The event, which was emceed by Nitya Mani ’15, who is now a Ph.D. student at MIT, also included a game night and a campus tour and admissions talk for prospective students.
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.
Middle school math students had a great showing at a the Santa Clara chapter Mathcounts contest, held Feb. 16 at the upper school campus. A team of four grade 8 students – Riya Gupta, Ashley Hu, Connie Jiang and Sally Zhu – took first place in the team portion of the event, repeating last year’s success. They will appear at the state-level competition, to be held March 23 at Stanford University.
In individual competition, eighth grader Rohan Bhowmik took second place overall, winning a tiebreaker over Ashley Hu, who placed third. Both had a score of 44 out of 46 points. Other notable placers were Sally Zhu in fifth place with 43 points, seventh grader Ethan Liu in seventh place with 42 points, Angelina Hu in 10th place with 41 points, Riya Gupta in 12th place with 40 points, Connie Jiang in 13th with 40 points (after a tie-breaking decision based on which problems each student solved) and seventh grader Emma Gao in 16th with 38 points. Bhowmik and Liu also qualified for the state competition.
A total of 112 students from 14 schools were present at the contest, which is believed to be one of the toughest chapter-level competitions in the country. “This is a highly competitive chapter as can be seen … with every point differential,” said middle school math department chair Vandana Kadam. “It is commendable that eight Harker students placed in the top 16.”
Swapnil Garg, grade 12, has been invited to participate in the Romanian Masters of Mathematics competition in Bucharest. The invitation to participate is based on a series of tests, called the team selection test (TST) or team selection exam (TSE); these tests are given to top finishers in the USA Mathematical Olympiad (ASAMO) and ultimately determine the national team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
To even qualify to take the TST, a student must first do exceptionally well on the American Mathematics Competition. He or she is then invited to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), followed by the USAMO and Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO and USAJMO).
The top students from the USAJMO are invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Program the summer after the exam. Those students are then eligible to be selected for the six-member team that will represent the United States at the IMO the following summer.
Garg will travel to Bucharest with three teammates and two adults; the group departs Feb. 20. Attending the Romanian Masters Mathematics competition is a huge honor! Good luck Swapnil! See all participants here.
Harker’s upper school math club sent a team to the Princeton University Mathematics Competition, a tier one competition. Overall, our team finished in fifth place out of 60-plus teams – an excellent performance! In the individual subcategory, Swapnil Garg, grade 12, finished in a very impressive second place out of 300-plus students. Go math Eagles!
Harker middle school students performed extremely well in California Mathematics League contests during the 2016-17 school year, according to a report published by the organization. Harker was the third highest-placing school in the league and placed first in the region at the grade 6 level, with Riya Gupta, Ashley Hu, Connie Jiang, Sally Zhu and Tiffany Chang all placing among the top 35 sixth grade competitors.
At the grade 7 level, Harker was the top-placing school in the league and the region, with students Alexander Hu, Rishab Parthasarathy, Akhilesh Chegu, Kevin Wang and William Zhao named among the top 49 performers.
Harker tied with Saratoga’s Redwood Middle School for second place in the grade 8 category. Among the top 34 students were Utkarsh Priyam, Eric Zhu, Vivian Jin and Sidra Xu.