Area middle schoolers compete, win at HU’s annual math competition

Northridge Middle School team

Discovery Middle School team

Concord Junior High School team

Individual winners: From left to right, Athreya Sundaram from Discovery Middle School, Jonathan Harley from Discovery Middle School and Garrett Rodino from Northridge Middle School.

HUNTINGTON, Ind. Northridge Middle School of Middlebury, Ind., took home first place in the annual Huntington University Middle School Mathematics Competition on April 16.

Seventeen area middle schools competed for individual and team awards while demonstrating their mathematical abilities. The goal of the competition is to support and encourage the efforts of students seeking to achieve in mathematics.
For the team competition, Northridge captured first place, Discovery Middle School in Granger, Ind., took second place and Concord Junior High School in Elkhart, Ind., took third place.

The individual titles were decided by a final three-way tie-breaking question. Athreya Sundaram, an eighth grader from Discovery Middle School captured first place. Jonathan Harley, an eighth grader from Discovery Middle School earned second place, and Garrett Rodino, an eighth grader from Northridge Middle School took third place.

The mathematics competition is made up of three rounds. The first round is a 20-question written exam comprised of questions from algebra, geometry and general mathematics. Students can earn a total of 100 points for the exam. The individual round of the competition is made up of 10 questions. Students are given a minute and a half to complete each question. Each question answered correctly earns a student 10 points. The final round, the team round, provides additional points for the team score. Students are provided with several problems that are more challenging and best solved through the cooperative efforts of the team. A total of 50 points is possible for the final round.

Schools competing were: Anderson Christian School, Bremen Middle School, Concord Junior High School, Crestview Middle School, Crestview Middle School, Discovery Middle School, Emmaus Lutheran School, Frankfort Middle School, Garrett Middle School, Lakeland Middle School, Maconaquah Middle School, Milford School, Northridge Middle School, Pope John Paul II Middle School, Riverview Middle School, Selma Middle School and St. Louis Academy.

William Palmer, a junior elementary and middle school mathematics major at HU, served as the student coordinator. The competition was overseen by Dr. Dan Dobbs and Dr. Jeff Lehman from the mathematics and computer science department at HU.