By Ben Walker
Staff Writer
Every school year the math team competes in several competitions. So far they have competed in three competitions, most recently in November and December. These competitions are a part of the Massachusetts Mathematics League (MML). There are a total of six meets throughout the year.
At the December meet, the team scored a season high of 134 points and went on to win their division meet at Methuen High School. They were led by strong competitors freshman Harshal Sheth, juniors Michael Colavita, Rama Mannava, and captains Alok Puranik, Pranav Nanga and Nehal Navali.
“I was proud of our team […] in that people other than the usual members stepped up and contributed.” said Nanga.
In November, the team won their second meet at Andover High School. They finished with a final score of 131 points. There were several strong competitors, but only one member, Puranik, earned a perfect score.
“We performed around our typical level on the team round,” said Puranik. “Working together on the team round was a matter of organization. It can get surprisingly chaotic when ten people are working on six problems with very limited time, but we did a good job of splitting up the work and communicating answers.”
MML meets take place monthly. However, not every math team member goes to every one.
“For each meet we hold qualifiers to choose the 10 people who compete because we have a large amount of talented who want to participate,” said Navali.
In addition to the monthly team meets, a team of six students participated in a competition at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). These students consisted of juniors Puranik, Nanga, Colavita, Navali, Karan Sarkar, and Nihaal Korandla. A total of 88 other teams competed from the New England area, and WA’s team finished in third place.
“The atmosphere is pretty competitive at some of the bigger meets but lax at the smaller ones,” said Navali.
The team’s next meet will be on January 8, 2015. This meet is a special one as it will be hosted at Westford Academy for the first time in over three years. A total of six other teams along with WA will compete. This is considered one of the bigger meets that they compete in, according to Navali.
Finally, in February, the team will compete in another MML meet. Additionally, over twenty students will take the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) exam. They will take this in hopes of moving onto the next level and possibly beyond.
“There are 2 levels (10 and 12) anyone can take the level 12, but the level 10 is for tenth graders and below,” said math team advisor Lisa Gartner.
The math team is open to any interested students and meets every Wednesdays.
