Technical glitches don’t phase Madison mathematicians

Young Madison mathematicians persevered in recent contests, although technology wasn’t cooperative.

On April 14, Rainbow elementary and Discovery middle schools competed at the Berry-Simmons Math Tournament in Hoover, a collaboration between Berry Middle School and Simmons Middle School.

Final scores were delayed because officials had to tabulate scores by hand after the scantron machine failed. The device normally ‘reads’ students’ answers for scoring.

Rainbow’s team won the first-place trophy for the medium school division. Individual award winners were Tony Tian, first; Joe Shen, second; and Corey Tolbert, third. Other participants were Meenu Bhooshanan, Kamila Graham and Ethan Pettipiece.

Discovery’s seventh-grade team won the third-place trophy for the large school division. Winston Van won the third-place individual trophy. The team included Amelia Goldston, Jake Kim, Dhruma Patel, Nihar Patel, Tyler Tolbert and Ada Van Der Zijp.

Mathew Ganatra, Chris Lee and Dan Nguyen on Discovery’s eighth-grade team earned fifth place.

At the Randolph School tournament in Huntsville on April 21, the Rainbow team “experienced a bit of deja vu (from) Berry-Simmons,” team coach Julie Goldston said. “While scoring tests, Randolph’s scantron machine broke — same problem two weeks in a row.”

Rainbow fifth-graders were in first place, more than doubling the nearest competitor. Individual award winners were Aditi Limaye, first; Tony Tian, second; Corey Tolbert, third; Joe Shen, fourth; Michael Guthrie, fifth; and Abraham Alrefai, ninth.

“The fifth-grade team had a ciphering score of 85 out of 100 — quite remarkable,” Goldston said. The test was designed so competitors would not finish. However, several Rainbow students did finish, and Aditi Limaye scored 110 out of 120.

Other fifth-grade competitors were Sophia Almanza, Colten Carver, Kamila Graham and Victoria Lee.

Rainbow sixth-graders captured second place among 23 schools. Alan Grissom received third place. Other competitors were Meenu Bhooshanan, Riley Cushing, Misa Ito, Brett Manis, Arnav Mathur and Ethan Pettipiece.

“What a special team this has been!” Goldston said.