March Madness is rapidly approaching for one Cranbury School team. But this team won’t be shooting jump shots, it’ll be doing math problems.
By: Brian Shappell
March Madness is rapidly approaching for one Cranbury School team. But this team won’t be shooting jump shots, it’ll be doing math problems.
The Mathcounts team placed first in the Raritan Valley Mathcounts Chapter team competition on Feb. 10, earning a spot at the state competition on March 10.
Four Cranbury School students also placed in the top 10 in the individual competition, including Peter Stevens, who finished first overall.
The team is made up of Peter, Cassie Gare, Graham McDonald, Maddy Carroll, Meghan Henner, Anton Woronczuk, Katie Gavenda, Polly Silverman, Vinny Giacalone and the team captain, Laurel Kanawyer.
"We had a dance the night before, so we were worried we might be tired," Meghan said about the teams preparation.
The results indicate that wasn’t the case.
The students, under the leadership of Cranbury School teacher Linda Penney, have been preparing for the competitions since fall with practices after school and for three hours on Saturday mornings, starting at 9.
"They’ve worked really hard on the team. They didn’t complain at all about Saturday practice," Ms. Penney said. "They all get along so well as a team."
Though the students have achieved a high level of success already and are preparing for even steeper competition next month, the team members said they have never been pressured to win.
Laurel and some of her teammates said that aside from the fun, supportive atmosphere of the team, being on the team has made them more prepared for taking tests such as the pre-SAT.
All 10 students took part in the individual rounds, which consisted of two written sections and a sprint round, where the competitors had to solve problems with a shorter time limit and no calculators.
The top 10 overall scorers then moved on to the countdown round where they faced off with another competitor where the contestants must buzz in with the answer.
The four students from Cranbury who qualified were Peter, Graham, Laurel and Polly; they also finished with a first, fourth, eighth and 10th in the individual round, respectively. The four, as the top scorers, also represented the school in the team round, where Cranbury edged out second place finishers from Marlboro.
Those who didn’t move on to the countdown round were far from quiet spectators. In fact, the Cranbury School students said they were the loudest group of supporters at the competition. Even Chief School Administrator Robert Bartoletti made his way to the competition to the support the students, with doughnuts, no less.
"When Peter was in the Countdown Round, we got so nervous," Katie said. "That’s when we went through the whole box of doughnuts."
Should the students match their February success at the state competition, the Cranbury School will not have a chance to rest on its laurels as it will be preparing for nationals.
It looks as if it could be a while before anyone in this group of students gets the chance to sleep late on a Saturday they don’t seem to mind at all.
"We live in here," Laurel joked about Ms. Penney’s classroom. "It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun; it has been a really good experience for me."