GMS Mathcounts team takes first
Team moves on to state championship

From right, Leslie Radosevich, 12, Kayla Haws, 12, and Kevin Murphy, 13, work out geometry problems during a Mathcounts practice session after school at Gallup Mid School. The GMS Mathcounts Team recently went to the regional competition in Farmington and brought home first place. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Maybe it doesn't get as much attention as the school's athletic program, but both students and parents are beginning to pick up on the success of the Mathcounts kids at Gallup Mid School.

Earlier this month, the club placed first at the San Juan Basin Chapter Mathcounts competition, sending the Gallup team to Albuquerque where it will compete for the state championship on March 17.

"I think our chances look good," said Sue Cote, one of three teachers who rotate to meet with students in the program twice a week during the competitive season.

Last year, the team came out in the middle of the eight-team pack, but this year's team, said Cote, is a lot more experienced since it is all seventh graders, many of whom competed on last year's team.

"They felt a little more confident going into this year's competition," she said. "And when you feel confident, you perform a lot better."

By coming in first, the team won $200 for its school, which will be used to help defray the costs of travel and overnight expenses.

The winning team at the San Juan competition consisted of Alanna Tempest, Kevin Murphy, Eric Paul Reige and Leslie Radosevich, outperforming the seven other teams, some of whom had eight graders, who had a year more competition experience under their belt.

In individual competition, Murphy took fourth place in the countdown and eighth overall for the day. Tempest placed first in the countdown round and third overall during the day.

Two other GMS students Kayla Haws and Jonathan Huthinson went to the competition and joined students from two other schools to compete as well.

The team members meet twice a week for about an hour each session going over the type of questions they would face in the actual competition.

Questions like:

What is the least positive integer divisible by the four smallest odd positive integers?

The difference between two perfect squares is 133. What is the smallest possible sum of these two perfect squares?

The answers, of course, are 105 for the first question and 205 for the second.

Cote said the team members spend the first 30 minutes doing problems like these on an individual basis. Both of these questions as well as many of the problems worked on came from the questions posed at last year's competition.

The last half hour, she said, is usually spent brainstorming about what to expect in this year's competition.

"We have a lot of parental support this year," said Cote. "It's nice to see a lot of positive support for the math competition this year."