Six area middle schools from Albany, Corbin, London, Monticello and Whitley City participated in the regional MathCounts competition, held on the Somerset Campus of Somerset Community College on Saturday, Feb. 2.
The first-place team award went to North Laurel Middle School. Second place was awarded to McCreary County Middle School. Third place went to Monticello Middle School and fourth place was awarded to Corbin Middle School.
The top student and scholarship winner of the Feb. 2 event was Layne Gaynor of North Laurel Middle School. The scholarship pays tuition for one semester at Somerset Community College, with the Cumberland Falls Engineers, the sponsor of the event, contributing $500 and SCC providing the rest.
According to SCC Mathematics Professor Arthur Dawson, MathCounts is a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program. Dawson has coordinated the annual regional MathCounts at SCC for many years.
Co-coordinators Neil Mosley and Ed Manning honored Dawson with a plaque in recognition of Dawson’s many years of service to the MathCounts program.
“MathCounts participants are ‘Mathletes,’” Dawson explained. “While there are plenty of opportunities for athletes to earn recognition, there are very few opportunities for students who excel in math to win awards and be recognized.”
The top two teams from the SCC Regional Math-Counts event will advance to the state level.
The advancing schools are North Laurel Middle School and McCreary County Middle School.
Three individual students also qualified to advance to the state level. They are Joe West of Monticello Middle School, Tommy Rally of Corbin Middle School and Amy Lair of Monticello Middle School.
The top 11 students in order of their final placement were Layne Gaynor of North Laurel Middle School; Pooja Kanthawar of North Laurel Middle School; Joe West of Monticello Middle School; Tyler Perry of McCreary County Middle School; Tommy Rally of Corbin Middle School; Donald Parriman of McCreary County Middle School; Amy Lair of Monticello Middle School; James Staton of Clinton County Middle School; Renee Bell of Monticello Middle School; Levon Combs of McCreary County Middle School; and Wayne Logan of Corbin Middle School.
Schools participating in the 2008 Regional Math-Counts event were North Laurel Middle School, Corbin Middle School, Monticello Independent Middle School, St. Camillus Academy in Corbin, Clinton County Middle School and McCreary County Middle School. Approximately 50 students participated in this year’s competition.
The following faculty and staff of Somerset Community College participated in the MathCounts contest on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008: David Behrman, Arthur Dawson, Martha Deitz, Billy Dobbs, Carrie Fitzpatrick, Clinton Hayes, Debra House, Joseph Lynch, Richard Matika, Raymond McDonnell, Virginia Metcalf, Roger Osborne, Cecilia Ramilo, Gary Sherman, Loris Sherman, Gail Stringer, Anita Walker and Sharon Whitehead.
Math Counts is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the CNA Foundation. National sponsors include Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Northrop Grumman, 3M and General Motors.
