The Suffolk County Mathematics Tournament on the Stony Brook University campus drew many of the region’s top young minds, including some exceptional Huntington School District students.
Led by SEARCH teacher-chairperson Maryann Daly, the Huntington contingent included four teams, including two each on the fifth and sixth grade levels. The tournament attracted hundreds of students spread across dozens of teams from 14 school districts
Huntington’s 20 competitors from Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School and Woodhull Intermediate School all boasted Math Olympiad scores placing them in the top 10 of their grade level. The youngsters trained weekly with Mrs. Daly for many months, practicing how to effectively work as a team.
Teachers Heather Barfuss, Christina Gottlieb and Barbara Gross helped Mrs. Daly in supervising and encouraging each of the Huntington teams during the competition.
The tournament’s questions have always been tricky, multi-step and challenging, but this year’s were especially difficult. Huntington’s competitors were ready.
The day was divided into two parts; the first portion consisted of the individual meet, with each competitor being given 10 questions to answer in 30 minutes. After the answer sheets were collected, everyone filed into the auditorium to review the strategies used to arrive at a valid solution. Students took turns at the microphone teaching those in the room how they answered the questions.
The day’s next segment was devoted to the team competition. Each team of five members was administered 10 questions with answers required within 20 minutes. Team captains kept everyone focused and organized. “These were the most difficult problems that I’ve seen in the 10 years that I’ve been bringing Huntington students to this tournament,” Mrs. Daly said. Another review followed.
A tie breaker round was held for students that scored at least eight correct answers out of the 10 questions administered during the individual competition.
Woodhull School sixth grader Mikah Schueller advanced to the tie-breaker round. He’s a veteran of the county math tournament after competing on last year’s fifth grade team. Mr. Schueller went on to place 11th out of nearly 300 students. “His courage, focus and math skills along with his huge smile and winning personality displayed grace under tremendous pressure,” Mrs. Daly said. “We applaud his determination and math skills.”
In a scene that only a kid from Huntington could pull off, Mr. Schueller made friends with all of his competitors sitting at the tie-breaker round table with him.
Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School sixth graders earned a fourth place team trophy in their county division for their performance during the competition. Led by team captain Cecilia Kye, the squad included Sophie Bradford, Aislyn Franciscovich, Kieran Husselbeck and Nikolai Seferian.
The Woodhull sixth grade team was captained by Markella Markotsis and included Jack DelPonte Leigh Hepworth, Sarah Krisch and individual honoree Mikah Schueller.
Huntington’s fifth grade teams were captained by Tess Calabria and Charlotte Gordon and included Adriano LaMantia, Ben Edgar-McNerney, Lars Galvin, Andrew Ganley, Anna Goodman, Samantha Koepele, Samantha McGloin and Uma Shtrom.
“Congratulations to these young people for going that extra mile and trying their best to solve very difficult problems that many adults would have trouble with,” Mrs. Daly said.
