TMS students participate in mathematics competition

Students from the Thermopolis Middle School MATHCOUNTS club participated in a regional mathematics competition on Feb. 23 in Powell at Northwest College. Sixth grader Josiah Butler advanced to the state competition March 6 in Laramie.

Ten students were allowed to compete, four as a team and six as individuals. Ryan Mosser (sixth grade), Oakley Bowman (seventh grade), John Maier (eighth grade) and Krynn McGinty (eighth grade) participated as a team in the competition. Maddie Stam (seventh grade), Reagan Severance (seventh grade), Austin Barral (sixth grade), Cole Collins (eighth grade), Josiah Butler (sixth grade) and Logan Petty (sixth grade) participated individually.

"We have a very talented group of students at Thermopolis Middle School," math teachers at Thermopolis Middle School Stephanie Czarobski, Emmy Hergert and Catie Deromedi said. "We were very impressed with all of our MATHCOUNTS participants. They've been coming to school at 7 a.m. every Wednesday for the past seven months and they still continue to practice math in the mornings. We even had an eighth grader, Jasman Steadman, come to practices knowing she couldn't compete due to a band obligation as well as a fifth grader, Hannah Andreen, who is too young to compete in the actual competition. We are very lucky to work with such dedicated students."

The competition was made up of four parts: Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Rounds. The Sprint Round consisted of 30 questions that students had to complete within 40 minutes. The Target Round consisted of eight questions, which were given to students a pair at a time. Students had six minutes to complete each pair of problems. The Team Round had ten problems for the team to work on together within 20 minutes. The top 25 percent of individuals, up to a maximum of ten, proceeded to the Countdown Round. The Countdown Round was an oral round in which students compete head-to-head answering questions within 45 seconds. The first student to answer correctly during this round moved on.

Though he did not place in the state competition, Butler was the first student from Thermopolis Middle School to advance to the state competition as well as one of the youngest competitors.