Prince Frederick, MD – February 13, 2020 – Teams from Calvert County middle schools captured three of the top five spots in the 26th annual regional Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) MATHCOUNTS competition. Northern Middle brought home the first-place trophy, with Mill Creek finishing in second place and Plum Point in fifth. All three teams will advance to the state competition held in March at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Dr. Daniel D. Curry, Superintendent, said, “MATHCOUNTS is an opportunity for our students to shine in the academic arena. We thank SMECO for the ongoing sponsorship of this valuable experience.”

The local MATHCOUNTS competition features rounds of mathematics problems to challenge students one-on-one and as teams over the course of the three-hour event. First is the sprint round, a 30-question test that students complete individually. The competitors go next to the target round, where they have four sets of two math problems and six minutes to complete each set.

In the individual competition, which is based on combined scores in the sprint and target rounds, Ivan Chiu from Spring Ridge Middle School in St. Mary’s County finished first and Barbara Kaczmarek from Northern Middle School finished second.
The top 12 scorers finish the competition by facing each other in the countdown round, a single-elimination tournament in which students must respond verbally to questions in a matter of seconds. Barbara Kaczmarek from Northern Middle School placed first and Ivan Chiu from Spring Ridge Middle School placed second.
In the team round, foursomes of students answer 10 questions in 20 minutes.

The members of the top scoring teams in Calvert County are:

Northern— Luke Erly, Steven Vilcheck, Grace Wood, and Sam Zolfaghari, coached by Carole Butler

Mill Creek— Drew Bishop, Melvin Cheng, Billy Clay, and Elena Saucedo, coached by Michelle Gregory

Plum Point — Brandon Chrones, Andrew Lamb, Aidan Moreland, and William Parsons, coached by Jonathan Moreland.

In addition to the team winners, seven students advanced to the state competition as individuals. They are Tony Colosi, Northern Middle; Kaelyn Funchion, Southern Middle; Ray Holmberg, Calvert Middle; Barbara Kaczmarek, Northern Middle; Tristan Milsaps, Plum Point Middle; Hunter Reed, Southern Middle; and Brett Sheranko, Mill Creek Middle.