News

Monday, March 1, 2010

La Colina Mathcounts Team takes Mathcounts Chapter Competition by storm

The February 28 Mathcounts Chapter Competition consisted of 13 schools and 82 students from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. La Colina's team of Adam Dai, Quinn Hensley, Alex Meiburg, and Alex Yang finished in first place with a team score of 56 (out of a possible 66).  The next highest team had a score of 38.

Individually, Alex Meiburg placed first, Alex Yang placed second, Quinn Hensley placed third, and Joshua Wang (one of our alternates) placed fourth. Teacher Ken Stevens said, “It was the first time I can remember (I've been coaching since 1992) that a school took the top four individual places. In addition, Adam Dai placed 8th individually, Vincent Chen placed 10th, Andrew Sumner placed 11th and Nick Cleland placed 12th. So all eight La Colina students that participated placed in the top 12.”

What was their secret? The students met with Ken Stevens once a week in preparation for the competition and they also met once a week after school with several dedicated parents. The team, and Joshua Wang in an individual competition, will compete next in the Mathcounts State Championship on March 20 at UC Irvine.