LAMS 8th grader Leia Lin won 2nd place overall at the New Mexico MathCounts State Competition, securing her spot on the New Mexico national team. She is pictured with the LAMS MathCounts coaches Phuong Nguyen and Dr. William Tucker. Photo Courtesy LAPS

The Los Alamos Middle School team won 2nd place in the team competition. Pictured are (left to right) Coach Phuong Nguyen, Lyla Lo, Leia Lin, Evan Cunningham, Norah Whitton and Coach Dr. William Tucker. Photo Courtesy LAPS

Fourteen students representing Barranca Mesa Elementary, Mountain Elementary, Piñon Elementary and Los Alamos Middle School competed at the New Mexico MathCounts State Competition held at UNM. Pictured are (back row, left to right): Dr. William Tucker (LAMS coach), Jane Lataille (Mountain Coach), James Junghans, Liam Colgan, Evan Cunningham, Norah Whitton, Everett James, and Courtney Smith (Piñon Coach); (front row, left to right): Rishabh Nandy, Evan Fu, Jacub Cincio, Glyn Lo, David Robel, Lyla Lo, Leia Lin, Jane Smith, Alice Chen, and Phuong Nguyen (LAMS Coach). Photo Courtesy LAPS

LAPS NEWS RELEASE

Los Alamos Middle School 8th grader Leia Lin won 2nd place overall in the individual competition at the MathCounts State Competition and will travel to Orlando, FL in May as part of New Mexico’s National Team. She also won 2nd place in the
Countdown Round.

Fourteen students representing Barranca Mesa Elementary, Mountain Elementary, Piñon Elementary and LAMS participated in the competition held at UNM.

The LAMS team won 2nd place overall. Prior to the state competition, the Mountain Elementary and LAMS teams earned first place in the Northern New Mexico Chapter Competition.

The LAMS team consisted of Evan CunniNgham, Leia Lin, Lyla Lo, and Norah Whitton. James Junghans, Liam Colgan, Jane Smith, and Alice Chen competed as individual competitors. Evan Cunningham and Lyla Lo scored in the top 12 competitors of the day and competed in the Countdown Round.

The Mountain team consisted of Rishabh Nandy, Jacub Cincio, Glyn Lo, and David Robel. Everett James represented Piñon Elementary and Evan Fu represented Barranca Mesa Elementary as individual competitors.

“The students did such a great job and all of the coaches are so proud of their hard work and dedication,” said Piñon Elementary MathCounts Coach Courtney Smith.At the chapter competition, David Robel earned the highest score in the Sprint Round, an outstanding achievement. Rishabh Nandy advanced to earn 4th place in the Countdown Round. Impressively, the students he competed against were all middle schoolers, making this accomplishment especially remarkable, noted Mountain Elementary MathCounts coaches Jane Lataille and Zeynep Unal.

“They exceeded expectations, and I could not be prouder of their hard work, dedication, and sportsmanship,” Coach Unal added.

LAMS had 11 students participate in the Chapter Competition. The LAMS team of Evan Cunningham, Leia Lin, Lyla Lo, and Norah Whitton, won 1st place at the chapter competition. Leia Lin placed 1st, Evan Cunningham placed 2nd, Lyla Lo placed 3rd, and Boden Holmes placed 4th in the written test. For the Countdown round Leia Lin placed 1st, Evan placed 2nd, and Boden placed 3rd.

Alice Chen, Liam Colgan, Boden Holmes, James Junghans and Jane Smith qualified individually for the state competition. The Los Alamos Middle School MathCounts club members include Alice Chen, Liam Colgan, Evan Cunningham, Boden Holmes, James Junghans, Hannah Li, Leia Lin, Lyla Lo, Logan Price, Jane Smith and Norah Whitton.

“All of our kids had a really great day,” said Coach Smith. “Even though our team didn’t win, it’s always great to see so many kids having fun with math.”

Representing Pinon Elementary were Olivia Conner-Lee, Jason Cunningham, Angel Fernandes, Emma Gonzales-Mendoza, Laura Holland, Everett James, Sydney Lombardi, Lucas Mandril, Grant Mason, Kiley McNeel, Aditya Nag, Andy Pantea, Ethan Romero, Lucy Smith, and Jonas Whitton.

Olivia Conner-Lee, Sydney Lombardi, Aditya Nag and Lucy Smith won 3rd place in the team competition. Everett James was Pinon Elementary’s top scorer and made it into the prestigious Countdown round with the top 16 competitors of the day.

Barranca Mesa Elementary was represented by Sydney Chen, Evan Fu, and Henry Rodarte.
MATHCOUNTS® is a national Middle School program that encourages students to increase their math skills through learning and competition. Students meet once a week for practice. Practice sessions include correcting assignments, and a lesson which often covers things that are not taught in the regular classroom.

Top students advance from school competition to regional, state and national competitions. The competition includes sprint rounds, with 30 problems in 40 minutes without using a calculator; a target round of eight problems: four sets of two problems, six minutes each and the use of a calculator; and a team round, where the team works together to solve 10 problems in 20 minutes.