NORTHBOROUGH – Five members of Algonquin Regional High School’s Freshman Math Team reached heights this year.
Five students – four Algonquin freshmen and one Melican Middle School eighth-grader – placed in the top five in the Worcester County Mathematics League freshman individual rankings last school year. Additionally, the team as a whole ranked first in their Class A division, which also includes teams from Saint John’s, Westborough, Shrewsbury, Bromfield and AMSA.
Eighth-grader Jasmine Palit ranked first followed by freshman Sophie He, Aaron Wu, Jackson Stiles and Kate Doolan.
“It definitely feels good to know that the effort we put in definitely was worth it,” said Stiles. Many of the math problems in the competition were challenging, he said.
“At least for me, it felt good to know that it meant something,” Stiles said.
Coming in first place, Palit won the Tom Severance Scholarship of $100. As a middle school student last year, she took the honors pre-calculus class at the high school by following along with what the teachers post online, though she does come by Algonquin occasionally to get help one-on-one.
Next year, as a freshman, Palit will be taking AP Calculus BC.
Palit said she’s always liked math. During this school year, she participated in the middle school and both freshmen and varsity math teams.
The team competes in three meets a year; this year the competitions were held at Westborough and Auburn high schools.
According to Wu, after competing in individual rounds, the students participate in a team round. Each round focuses on a general topic, such as solving linear equations and logic problems.
According to advisor Eileen Falcone, this was the team’s first year back participating in in-person meets since the COVID-19 pandemic. Though Algonquin as a team has placed first in the past, this is the first time that five students placed in the top five.
Falcone said it’s exciting to see the students succeed.
“I’m proud of them for all their hard work,” Falcone said. “It’s exciting this year especially to be back in person and see them socializing with the other students that have similar interests from other schools.”
All of the students have things that they like about participating with the math team – getting to meet new people, being around other people who enjoy as much as them and seeing the other people they grow to recognize from past meets.
“It’s really helpful for taking any kind of timed test,” said Palit. “Having now taken tests – they’re not as bad as having to solve really complicated math problems.”
