Finley Mathcounts Vie Against Long Island’s Best

J. Taylor Finley Middle School Mathcounts team is in the midst of matching wits against many of Long Island’s top young math students. Finley’s math wizards vied in the chapter’s annual competition last weekend and impressed everyone.

More than 30 students tried out for the team last fall by taking a test. The top scorers included:

Seventh graders: Nicolas Chan Camargo, Dylan Jurow, Michael Spagnoletti

Eighth graders: Owen Hoffman, Mia Hodgkinson, Andrew Parrott

Sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Mathcounts initiative is designed to generate interest in math and to provide a competitive outlet for exceptional students.

Weekly meetings have been held after school to practice for the different rounds of competition. At the chapter competition at Great Neck North Middle School “our students participated in the sprint, target, and team rounds, which is a mixture of calculator vs. no calculator problems,” said math teacher Abigal Simon, who serves as faculty advisor along with department colleague Denise Grodzicki. “They competed against other middle schools across Long Island and Queens. Although no Huntington students advanced, we are very proud of their efforts. The team will be competing again at the Math Masters Invitational at West Islip in May.”

A national middle school mathematics competition, Mathcounts “builds problem-solving skills and fosters achievement through levels of fun, in-person ‘bee’ style contests,” according to the organization’s website.