WCU Stories      April 4, 2019

Western Carolina University hosted its 48th annual Mathematics Contest on Thursday, March 21, with approximately 400 of the region’s top high school and junior high school mathematics students competing.

The students represented 27 schools from across the western region of North Carolina. They competed at Ramsey Regional Activity Center for individual and team awards by taking one of four exams as determined by mathematics courses the students have enrolled in during the current academic year. Students who received certificates of merit at the WCU contest will be eligible to participate in the state finals.

Julie Barnes, professor in WCU’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, gave a presentation on “Publishing a Coloring Book from Studying Complex Functions” for the more than 40 teachers and sponsors who accompanied the students to campus. The visitors to campus had lunch in the Courtyard Dining Hall and had a chance to talk with representatives from WCU academic programs and student organizations before reconvening for the awards ceremony.

The WCU contest is the oldest and one of the largest of its type in the state. The event is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Contest results are:

Level I Individual

Julian Grinberg (Lake Norman Charter School), first place; Claire Lim (Valley Springs Middle School) and Ruby Blue (North Buncombe Middle School), tie for second place. Certificates of Merit: Tyra Washington, Xuting Zhang, Avery Love, Nikitha Gogineni (Lake Norman Charter School); Jordan Andrews (North Buncombe Middle School); Harini Kumar (Valley Springs Middle School); Rayhan Brown (Asheville Middle School).

Level I Team

Lake Norman Charter School, first place; Valley Springs Middle School, second place; North Buncombe Middle School, third place.

Level II Individual

Nikhil Sampath (Lake Norman Charter School), first place; Sean Huynh (Lake Norman Charter School), second place; Elias Szobody (Asheville Homeschool Math Club), third place. Certificates of Merit: David Fleming, Josiah Szobody (Asheville Homeschool Math Club); May Currens (Asheville Middle School); Aidan Harris, Gabriel Franzi (North Buncombe High School); Devin Buckler (Lake Norman Charter School); Lexxie Smith (Franklin High School).

Level II Team

Lake Norman Charter School, first place; Asheville Homeschool Math Club, second place;

North Buncombe High School, third place.

Level III Individual

Jeeyah Shah (Lake Norman Charter School), first place; Dominik Mystkowski (Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy), second place; Alexander White (Asheville High School), third place. Certificates of Merit: James Thelen, Camden Sloan (Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy); Alexey Wade (North Buncombe High School); Torin Stecink (T.C. Roberson High School); Bella Vandersall (Franklin School of Innovation); Nick Mueller (Asheville High School); Raghar Sriram (Lake Norman Charter School).

Level III Team

Lake Norman Charter School, first place; Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, second place;

Asheville High School, third place.

Comprehensive Individual

Jacob Grinberg (Lake Norman Charter School), first place; Asher Nejezchleb (Asheville Home School Math Club), second place; Zachary Bobbitt (Asheville Homeschool Math Club), third place. Certificates of Merit: Erik Dahlberg, Keiran Jensen (Nesbitt Discovery Academy); Benji Dial (Brevard High School);  Mason McElroy, Bhargov Vaduri (Lake Norman Charter School); Niko Rush, Catherine Roberts, Elijah Fleming (Asheville Homeschool Math Club).

Comprehensive Team

Asheville Homeschool Math Club, first place; Lake Norman Charter School, second place;

Nesbitt Discovery Academy, third place.