Washington Middle School students have done it again: For the fifth straight year, they triumphed at the state MATHCOUNTS competition, this time sweeping the top three spots in the nerve-wracking countdown round.
"I knew this year we were going to have a humongous challenge from both Punahou and Seabury Hall," said their coach, Sung Park. "The kids practiced hard. They want to keep this legacy."
MATHCOUNTS 2015
Countdown Round winners:
1. Kent Kiyama, Washington Middle
2. Kenso Kume, Washington Middle
3. Haeri Kim, Washington Middle
4. Steven Doan, Seabury Hall
5. Ryan Park, Punahou School
6. Kenny Thai, Washington Middle
7. David Shiraki, Seabury Hall
8. Jacinda Chen, Kawananakoa Middle
9. Akshay Chekuri, Punahou School
10. Seobeen Chang, Washington Middle
Team results:
1. Washington Middle
2. Seabury Hall
3. Punahou School
4. Highland Intermediate
5. Mililani Middle
6. Waiakea Intermediate
7. ‘Iolani School
8. Kawananakoa Middle
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Two-thirds of the students at Washington, which serves the McCully and Moiliili neighborhoods, come from low-income households. But nothing seems to hold them back.
Washington eighth-graders Kent Kiyama and Kenso Kume and seventh-grader Haeri Kim placed first, second and third in the countdown round Saturday at Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama campus. Fourth-place finisher Steven Doan of Maui’s Seabury Hall will round out Hawaii’s team at the 2015 MATHCOUNTS national competition in Boston in May.
"I was super nervous," said Kim, 13, who will be one of the first girls to represent Hawaii at the nationals. "I didn’t really expect that I would go to the countdown round."
Students who perform best on written tests earlier in the day got to the countdown round. In those head-to-head match-ups, competitors vied to come up with the correct answer and slam their buzzer seconds after each problem was projected on a screen and read aloud. Sometimes they were quicker than the announcer.
Five out of Hawaii’s top 10 "mathletes" this year are Washington students, including two girls. Seabury Hall and Punahou each had two students, and Kawananakoa Middle had one student in the top 10. Park said Kim is the first girl to make the Hawaii state team in the years he has followed the competition.
Kim encouraged other girls to give MATHCOUNTS a try.
"I really don’t know why there aren’t many girls," she said. "It’s really fun. I think they would enjoy it."
Along with the individual contests, teams competed in a separate round of written questions, where team members worked together to solve problems. The top three teams this year were Washington Middle, Seabury Hall and Punahou School.
Hawaiian Electric Co. sponsors the state competition, which is coordinated by the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers Educational Foundation and powered by many volunteers, including the teacher-coaches who put in long hours with students after school.
"Mr. Park — I don’t know what he’s doing, but it’s working very well," Barry Nakamoto, chairman of the Hawaii MATHCOUNTS program and manager of corporate planning at Hawaiian Electric, said Tuesday. "We are very proud of the achievements of all of the students statewide that participate in the MATHCOUNTS competition program."
The MATHCOUNTS Foundation was founded to help middle school students discover the fun, beauty and challenge of solving math problems at an age when some are intimidated by the subject. It works to inspire them to pursue careers in math, science and technology. The organization will cover the cost of the Hawaii team’s trip to Boston, Nakamoto said.
Park said his students felt they had to keep doing their best after an outpouring of public support, including cards and donations, came in after last year’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser article on their winning streak. One elderly man stopped by the campus with the newspaper in hand and wrote out a check for $40,000 to support the school, Park said.
"We worked harder than ever because of the public expectation," the coach said.
