Math Counts Competition

Yesterday was the Southern Arizona Area Math Counts competition. Previously, I had mistakenly called it a county competition, but it was actually larger than that. Sean qualified to be on the Elgin team and compete with 7 other kids from the school. The competition is open to 6th – 8th grades. Sean was the only 6th grader to make the team from Elgin.

We still aren’t sure where the kids from Elgin finished yesterday as Sean had to leave the competition before all the team awards/finishes were announced. Their teacher/coach thought they had finished 3rd overall but wasn’t sure and was going to call us last night when he knew, but I had the phone tied up most of the night on a different issue so I don’t think he could get through.

During the team competition, individuals are qualified for the individual rounds based on how well they do during the team rounds. Sean was the only kid from Elgin that qualified for the individual rounds. During that portion of the competition, he finished 5th overall in Southern Arizona. That’s a pretty amazing finish to me since all math problems up through 8th grade are allowed in the competition.

He got a nice trophy and McDonalds gift card for his 5th place individual finish. Unfortunately, 5th place isn’t good enough to advance to the State competition. Sean was really happy and excited about his finish though a bit disappointed in the question he lost out on. He didn’t get it wrong, just slower than the kid he was up against.

Sean has another two years to improve his finish in the Math Counts competition. The Math Counts stuff is now getting in his blood just like the Spelling Bee. Good thing he has football, baseball, basketball, video games and his hip hop dancing to keep him from getting to nerdy. The kid certainly has my genes. 😉