By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – Students from the Marlboro Middle School and Marlboro Memorial Middle School will compete in the New Jersey State Mathcounts competition on March 11 at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
During a regional competition on Feb. 4 at Union County College, Cranford, the Marlboro Middle School team of eighth-graders Shadmehr Khan, Josh Rakovitsky, Alan Rza and Arya Tschand placed first in the team competition. Marlboro Memorial Middle School’s team of Adithya Balachandran, Lasya Balachandran, Sophia Lin and Justin Wu placed second in the team competition.
In the individual competition, Adithya Balachandran placed second and Josh Rakovitsky placed 11th. More than 200 students from 25 schools in three counties participated in the regional event.
Individual competitors representing the Marlboro Middle School were seventh-graders David Chang, Sarah Feldman, Gavesh Rajapaksha, Jadi Wang, Andy Zhang and Bill Zhang.
Individual competitors representing Marlboro Memorial Middle School were eighth-graders Adithya Balachandran, Lasya Balachandran, Tharun Chinnasamy, Sophia Lin, Skanda Sai and Arsh Singhal; seventh-graders Matthew Shen and Justin Wu; and sixth-graders Varun Gupta and Ivan Wong.
The Marlboro Middle School pupils were coached by math teacher Marcia Wilson and the Marlboro Memorial Middle School pupils were coached by math teacher Hope Freeman.
“The team worked so diligently to prepare for the competition that it was very rewarding to see them be so successful,” Freeman said. “We are looking forward to the next round at states.”
“It is a pleasure to work with such excellent young mathematicians who work hard and have the desire to learn. Their work ethic makes my job easy,” Wilson said.
The Mathcounts Foundation provides math programs to middle school students of all ability levels in order to build confidence and improve attitudes toward math and problem solving, according to the organization’s website.
The Mathcounts Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person contests against and alongside their peers.
In other news from the Marlboro K-8 School District, Marlboro Middle School sixth grade pupils Sophia Neckin and Junho Jeong had their artwork accepted into the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Late Winter Exhibit, which is sponsored by the Art Educators of New Jersey.
The pupils’ artwork was inspired by Dia de los Muertos (a Mexican holiday) and was chosen among entries from across the state to be included in the exhibit. The students’ art will be displayed in the Victoria Theater lobby at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, until April 9, according to the school district.