The Turlock High School Math Club once again has a reason – or reasons – to celebrate. The club won big at the Modesto Junior College 43rd Dick Schaff Mathematics Superbowl on April 9, placing in the competition’s individual, partner and team events.
According to the club’s advisor, Jordan Cotton, the THS Math Club has been participating in the Mathematics Superbowl for over 10 years. The event allows students in grades 7-12 to compete against other students from across the county in variety of mathematics courses.
“My students displayed true grit when it came to preparing for the competitions,” said Cotton.
To prepare for the competition and its difficult subject matter, the club participated in daily lunch study sessions and after-school cram sessions. Their hard work paid off and the club went home with three first place finishes, three second place finishes, one third place finish and three honorable mentions.
The Superbowl’s individual event, known as The Blitz, calls for quick computational skills. Up to 50 multiple choice questions may be asked during a given period of time, and the student with the highest number of correct answers is declared the winner. THS had four students place in The Blitz: Victor Pak took home first place in the Algebra II category, Neema Rashidi won first place for Math Analysis, Martin Acosta was awarded second place for the Calculus category and Emily Ngo received honorable mention in Algebra II.
The partner competition, or The Huddle, is a two-person event where both students work the same set of problems individually during the first 30 minutes. In the last 15 minutes, the two students may compare their answers and discuss, ultimately turning in one final answer sheet. THS students Will Ladine and Pak won first place in the Algebra II category, Rashidi and Kevin Vafadouste were awarded second place for Math Analysis while Colby McCann and Acosta also won a second place award in Calculus. Izzy Romeo and Ngo received an honorable mention for Algebra II and Carlos Reyes received an honorable mention for Calculus.
The team event, The Bomb, is a five person relay competition. Each team is given a test of five pages, with each team member working on one problem from each page. After completing their question, the student then passes that page along to the next team member and the first team to complete all five pages of their test wins. The THS team of Acosta, Anoop Bains, Rashidi, Pak and Henry Wooley, took home third place in The Bomb event.
The THS Math Club also travelled to the Fresno Math Field Day on April 16, where they made THS history.
“This was our first year to have a student place individually for Fresno,” said Cotton.
While THS has placed as a team at the math field day, Rashidi took home the school’s first ever individual award when she placed first in the Mad-Hatter 9-10 event, adding to the club’s recent success.
“Their hard work paid off and THS is proud of these ‘mathletes,’” said Cotton. “A big thank you to Kiwanis of Greater Turlock for their generous donation that made all the competitions more accessible for our students.”
