MADISON – Knowledge of mathematical concepts and applying those theories took the Math Team at Liberty Middle School to first-place honors in MATHCOUNTS state competition.

Liberty entered the competition at Auburn University – Montgomery on March 17.

Math Team members are seventh-graders Joshua Wang and Jerry Zheng and eighth-graders Santosh Sadasivam and Emily Lee. Billie Wilhelm coaches seventh-graders in math team, and Lory F. Schieler coaches members in eighth grade.

Joshua Wang compiled superior contests result to qualify for MATHCOUNTS national competition.

Discovery Middle School won third place in MATHCOUNTS. Discovery student Justin Pan also qualified to advance to the national contest.

About 20 schools attended the competition in Montgomery with approximately 70 students involved in testing. Their contest problems involved counting and probability, statistics, patterns, Pythagorean Theorem, 3D geometry, ratios, algebraic equations and number theory.

“These kids took school and chapter tests and won first in those (exercises) to get a chance to attend state MATHCOUNTS,” parent spokesperson Deepa Anantharaman said.

“The math team journey for kids starts from their elementary school. When they are in elementary school, interested students will take a test and will be placed on the team based on the scores they get,” Anantharaman said.

In middle school, the students can choose among three categories of math subjects: regular math, honor math, along with honor math with math team. Both honor math students and math team members participate in math competitions.

Schieler and Wilhem, who teach math at Liberty, “give rigorous practice to the kids. They prepare them for all the interstate, local and national math competitions along with teaching the regular math,” Anantharaman said.

“Both the teachers teach the kids not only the very intricate mathematical concepts but also they give practice for all the math competitions in class,” Anantharaman said.

“Attending these competitions not only gave the Liberty students the conceptual understanding of math but also an emotional connection to math,” Anantharaman said. “The stronger conceptual understanding of the topics, the more students set up for success down the line.”

The 2018 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition is scheduled for May 12-15 in Washington D.C.

For more information, visit mathcounts.org.