The Brunswick Junior High School seventh- and eighth-grade math teams had a successful year of competition. They compete in two leagues: a written competition in the Southern Maine Math League, and the Central Maine Math League, which is composed of two oral rounds and a written round.

In the Central Maine League, 10 to 15 teams go head to head in competition until they have lost twice. The oral round is fast paced and exciting, as students try to be the first to correctly answer a question. It is followed by a written team round of more challenging problem solving.

The Southern Maine League has all students simultaneously taking a written exam. Team scores are composed of the top four individual high scores on the arithmetic and geometry rounds, combined with the team score for a team problem solving round.

More than 20 schools compete in the Southern Maine League.

The eighth grade team placed well in both leagues this year. It won a second place overall finish in a CMML meet. In SMML action, it placed second at the May meet and third in March.

In both SMML meets, Shane Lyons had an individual first place finish with a perfect score. Eighth grade team members included Emma Blair, Josh Clark, Josh Factor, Ben Farrell, Reed Foster, Jonah Hunt, Xander Knox, Shane Lyons, Cassidy Madore, Nate Samson, and Tiffany Tanner.

The seventh grade team members were Gianna Barnhart, Allie Burns, Rong Xi Chen, Emily Cowan, Logan Engstrom, Hannah Escoe, Sawyer Nicholson, Olu Vaughn, Anna Webster, Taylor Worthington and Stephanie Zhang. The team placed third at a CMML meet. They had a strong showing in the SMML, too, usually placing in the top half of a field of about 20 schools.

A select few individuals competed in the prestigious Math Counts competition, sponsored by professional engineering organizations and businesses. The Math Counts program was developed to interest middle school students in careers related to mathematics. The Brunswick Junior High team included Shane Lyons, Cassidy Madore, Tobyn Blatt, Xander Knox and Courtney Grimes.

Schools compete at a regional level in Maine’s three geographic regions. The top four teams in each region advance to the state final competition. Brunswick placed fourth in the regional competition, qualifying them to attend the state finalwhere they placed third overall.

The Math Counts competition consists of three written rounds: two individual rounds and a team problem solving round. At the end of the written competition, the top 10 individual high scorers of the meet participate in an exciting “head-to-head” oral competition. At the regional meet, Shane Lyons placed sixth after the written round, and skillfully answered questions against the other contestants in the oral round to finish in first place. Cassidy Madore placed fifth after the written round and finished in sixth place after the oral competition.

At the state final competition, Lyons placed second after the written round, and retained his second place finish through the oral competition. The top four individual high scorers at the State Final Meet qualify to go on to the Math Counts national competition in Orlando, Fla., in May.

Lyons placed 162nd overall in the nation. The number of students participating in all levels of Math Counts Competitions is estimated to be 100,000, so he placed in the top .17 percent of all students nationally.

SUSAN WEDDLE is the chairwoman of the math department at Brunswick Junior High School.