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Competitors Go ‘Prime’ Time at Math Super Bowl
By Kevin McFadden, Noozhawk Contributor | 
| Published on 02.07.2010
Saturday’s 23rd annual High School Mathematics Contest, a Super Bowl of numbers at Westmont College, offered almost as much high drama and suspense as the real Super Bowl. That might be a slight exaggeration — but it did boast two late comebacks, a delay of game and even a game-changing, false-start penalty. What more could a lover of sports — or math — ask for?
Some of the best and brightest mathletes from 10 Southern California high schools converged on Westmont’s campus Saturday to kick some algebra and take some numerals. The schools represented in the competition were Dos Pueblos, Cate, Crescenta Valley, Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Thacher, San Roque, Oaks Christian, Bishop Diego and Providence Hall.
The competition was split into two divisions — ninth- and 10th-graders, and 11th- and 12th-graders — with four students on each team, for a total of eight students per school.
The preliminary events included a written section, where each team had about 90 minutes to solve five math questions; “chalk talk,” where one team member gave a PowerPoint presentation about a predetermined topic (this year’s topic was “prime numbers”); and a college bowl format, where two teams competed against each other, and team members buzzed in with their answers.
It all may sound fairly basic, but there is a metric ton of work that goes into preparing for the event each year.
Russell Howell, a 32-year veteran of Westmont’s Mathematics Department and the architect of the competition for the past 23 years, spends weeks sending e-mails to high schools, designing T-shirts and formulating original questions (140 total) for the different portions of the competition.
“It’s very time-consuming,” Howell said. “The last two weekends especially, it’s pretty much all I did. But I’ve done it for 23 years, and it has always run smoothly. I’ve been teaching here since I was 5, by the way.”
Five Westmont faculty members and more than 20 student volunteers came together to make sure the day ran smoothly. After the preliminary events concluded, it was time for the big show. The top two teams in each division from the college bowl earlier in the day competed in a final college bowl showdown, as the rest of the participants, parents, coaches and staff members looked on.
The ninth- and 10th-graders went first, with Thacher facing off against San Marco High. With 12 minutes on the clock, geometry and algebra questions were asked until time ran out. Despite a noble effort by the San Marcos Royals, Thacher posted a huge prime number on the big board for a decisive 17-0 victory.
However, as the 11th- and 12th-graders prepared to take the stage, there was a surprise announcement. Someone had apparently switched the results from the two divisions, meaning the ninth- and 10th-graders from Thacher should have competed against the students from Dos Pueblos, not San Marcos. False start, five-yard penalty, repeat first down!
So, after thumping the Royals and believing they had won the final, the Thacher juggernaut was forced to take the stage again.
Thacher jumped out to a quick lead, going up 4-0 against Dos Pueblos. But Dos Pueblos came roaring back to pull off the 7-4 upset in the final seconds.
Next, the 11th- and 12th-graders from Thacher faced the 11th- and 12th-grade team from San Marcos, determined to avenge the earlier drubbing of their classmates. With two minutes remaining in the competition, Thacher was hanging on to an 8-6 lead. The Royals rallied late in the game and took the title with a final score of 10-8.
Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider was on hand for the competition and said a few words of encouragement afterward.
“I never knew a math competition could have intrigue, and surprise — and high drama,” she said jokingly. “Keep it up. This really is a fascinating way to prepare to reach your full potential someday.”
The theme of the competition was “prime numbers.” A prime number is a natural number that has exactly two natural number divisors: 1 and itself. Since 23 is a prime number, Howell thought it would be an appropriate theme for the 23rd year of the competition.
Daniel Petersen, a member of the San Marcos math team, explained during his chalk talk that the number 1 is not a prime number, since it has only one natural number divisor — itself — and therefore doesn’t meet the criteria for a prime number.
But on Saturday, all of the winners in their respective events considered 1 to be pretty prime — regardless of what their math professors say.
Winners
Chalk Talk
First: Elizabeth Garfinkle, San Roque
Second: Daniel Petersen, San Marcos
Ninth- and 10th-Grade College Bowl
Dos Pueblos — Anthony Granatelli, Daniel Richman, Daniel Gay and Vy-Luan Huynh
Ninth- and 10th-Grade Written
Bishop Diego — Andre Kohansamad, Nic Mon, Michael Winnewisser and Benjamin Helke
11th- and 12th-Grade College Bowl
San Marcos — Amy Ransohoff, Johnny Manzo, Daniel Peterson and Matt Welsh
11th- and 12th-Grade Written
Thacher — Ricky Yun, Tina Yun, Trevor Mulchay and Scott Lee
Ninth- and 10th-Grade Overall Points
Thacher — Josh Cho, Sarah Cresto, Sottyun Park and Lucy Han
11th- and 12th-Grade Overall Points
Thacher — Ricky Yun, Tina Yun, Trevor Mulchay and Scott Lee
— Kevin McFadden is a Noozhawk contributor.
Comments
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» on 02.07.10 @ 07:23 AM
Correction: The Ninth-and 10th-Grade Overall points winner was Dos Pueblos
[Noozhawk’s note: Math Super Bowl organizer Russell Howell confirmed that Thacher was the ninth- and 10th-grade overall points winner. Dos Pueblos was the ninth- and 10th-grade college bowl winner.]
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» on 02.07.10 @ 10:56 AM
No actually the Dos Pueblos kids won the college bowl for 9th and 10th grade, but the overall winner was in fact Thacher
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» on 02.07.10 @ 12:59 PM
For anyone who cares… those are all GATE kids! I’m just saying…
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» on 02.07.10 @ 01:07 PM
Please note that you have incorrectly labeled this the Math Super Bowl. The SB County Math Super Bowl is for 4th, 5th, and 6th grades and is held at Earl Warren Showgrounds in April or May. This competition is called by another name.
[Noozhawk’s note: We’ve corrected the story. Thanks.]
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» on 02.07.10 @ 02:47 PM
Thanks for hosting Westmont!
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» on 02.07.10 @ 09:38 PM
The Divisions were as follows:
ninth and 10th,
11th and 12th.
There was not a 10th and 11th division.
“Daniel Petersen” was misspelled “Daniel Peterson”
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» on 02.07.10 @ 09:51 PM
One would have thought that with the Engineering Academy and the IB program DP would have swept all the awards. Lets hear it for high profile private schools! They are still the best! Way to go Thacher!
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» on 02.08.10 @ 07:06 AM
Plus Thacher doesn’t have GATE classes! And even with an admissions process, they admit a lot of average kids, so way to go Thacher for serving a variety of student needs!
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» on 02.08.10 @ 11:12 AM
Thank you Noozhawk, Mr. MacFadyen in particular, for your dedicated, reliable coverage over the last 9 years of County Math SuperBowls, Westmont’s Math Competitions, and other regional math events. You put math on the public’s radar. Kudos to Mr. Howell, Westmont administrators and volunteers for annually hosting this first class event. Lastly, to Raytheon for its contribution to May’s Math SuperBowlfor elementary students where we got our start. Your major contributions bring the importance of math education to the forefront, provide role models to younger students, give us opportunities and exposure, plus a chance to get to meet one another to network. As a third grader at Cold Spring School, now a senior at SB High, who has received regular media coverage for accomplishments in soccer, tennis, basketball, swimming, water polo, music, and theater, reading your coverage of math competitions pleases me the most.
Having heard that the lack of math talent has been declared a National Emergency you can know you’ve done your part to cultivate interest. Cold Springs zero period supplemental weekly math classes for 4th-6th graders are packed at 7:15am. I know I would not currently have sophomore standing at UCSB & SBCC had I not met in fifth grade former SB High Senior Class President Joey Romeo (Washington GATE) at a regional competition, who then introduced me to form SB High Student Body President Craig Silverman (MUS GATE). Both of these guys actively mentored me, introduced me to science and music, provided me a path, showed me by example the value of being great at math and well-rounded in many other areas. In turn, this was all possible because of adult leadership, their high level commitment to math, and your media coverage. May other publications, individuals, businesses and schools choose to support math education and local students.
Thank you. Andrew Adams
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» on 02.08.10 @ 03:07 PM
I was at the event on Saturday to watch my some compete, and fliers and banners reading “Westmont College Math Super Bowl” were all around. Unless you think that the name “Math Super Bowl” is expressly trademarked for the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade! It was the Westmont Math Super Bowl…get your facts straight before commenting…
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» on 02.08.10 @ 06:15 PM
...since when have the IB programs or the Engineering Academy given any advantages at all regarding the advanced problem solving skills needed for the math in such competitions? The generic problems done in such advanced courses typically deviate from the difficulties or varieties seen in contests such as this, the AMC, ARML and whatnot.
If anything, I would think a lack of such rigorous programs would give students more time to prepare for these extracurricular competitions, and thus an advantage of their own.
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» on 02.08.10 @ 07:21 PM
The fliers that “A person who ALSO knows things” claimed to have seen did not say “Westmont College Math Super Bowl”; they said “College Bowl” because that’s the name of one of the events at the Westmont Contest. While the name “Math Super Bowl” is not trademarked, Westmont wouldn’t usurp it.
Another correction to the Noozhawk article: It says “However, as the 11th- and 12th-graders prepared to take the stage, there was a surprise announcement.”
The announcement actually came after those students had not only taken the stage but had played several rounds.
Despite any snafus, the event and the coverage of it are both well done and much appreciated.
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» on 02.09.10 @ 01:26 PM
How did Carpinteria HS do?
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» on 02.09.10 @ 03:48 PM
Elizabeth Garfinckle (San Roque) that took first in Chalk Talk is our neighbor and we are all very, very proud of her! Excellent work Elizabeth and kudos too to her parents who are fantastic people (and of course Ruthie too :-)
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» on 02.13.10 @ 02:44 PM
Congratulations to the San Marcos winners and to all the participants! Great job!
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» on 07.08.10 @ 09:07 PM
Correction: “Elizabeth Garfinkle” was misspelled “Elizabeth Garfinckle”.
[Noozhawk’s note: Fixed. Thank you!]
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