Last week, 817 students from 52 schools showed up at Georgia Southern University for the 21st Annual GSU Invitational Math Tournament. The students were from middle and high schools all over the state, with the exception of the Atlanta and northern Georgia area.
Dean of the Allen E. Paulson College of Science and Technology Dr. Bret Danilowicz was there to observe the event, which is run by the college’s Mathematics Department faculty. Dr. Susie Lanier organized the tournament, while Dr. Donna Saye was in charge of logistics.
There were divisions in each of the three levels of competition: Middle School (MS); Junior Varsity (JV); and Varsity (V). All of the students first took an individual math test. After breaking for lunch, everyone reassembled at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Here, the real “fun” began. In this, the public part of the competition, students from all levels and divisions were paired up into teams of two for the ciphering event. There were so many students that there were two rounds of eight questions for which they were allotted two minutes.
How fast the team got the right answer determined how many points they earned. If the team answered the question correctly within the first minute, they got full credit. If they answered it within the second minute period, then they got half credit.
After both rounds were, scores were tabulated. During this interval, there was musical entertainment, which quickly devolved into a series of birthday songs.
When Dr. Lanier approached the microphone with the results, the gym became absolutely quiet: After the awards were given out to the winners of the Computer Stars challenge, the individual scores were announced for all three levels, first for individuals and then for teams.
Bulloch County public school students stole the show in their respective divisions and levels. Southeast Bulloch Middle School’s team (Cory Graham, Emiry Blitch, Haley Davis, Merekate Schlierf) won third place in the MS Div.2 team competition, beating out 30 other teams.
Southeast Bulloch High School won even more awards in both the individual and team competitions.
Leading the pack was Greg Parker, who beat out 106 other students in V Div.2 to take first place in the individual award. His team (Greg Parker, William Groover, Nathan Davis, Brianna Goodman) won first place in the V Div.2 team competition, beating out 29 other teams for top honors.
SEB’s second varsity team (Sam Hicks, Tim Montgomery, Joel Page, Kristian Terrell) took third place in the same category. In addition, SEB High School’s JV Div.2 team (Tea Bibeti, Bridget Devlin, Forest Strickland, Joseph Strickland) won first place in their competition, beating out 20 other teams for this honor.
Statesboro High School’s Colby Parker and Julie Shen each won individual awards at their levels: Colby beat out 36 other students to take first place in the JV Div.1 competition; and Julie beat out 78 individuals in the V Div.1 competition to take third place.
Colby’s team (Colby Parker, Calvin Campopiano, Jeffrey Li, Supriya Immaneni) also finished in first place in JV Div.1, beating out 20 other teams. Shen’s team (Julie Shen, John Hunter Bowen, Josh Pollak, Brett Reichard) overall scores tied those of the Evans County High School team for the second highest totals in the V Div.1 competition.
Both teams’ individual and team scores were identical, a first for this competition. Dr. Lanier explained that there would be no tiebreaker and both teams were declared second place finishers, beating out 19 other teams for this honor.
Finally, Trinity Christian’s team (Charity Ruth Bray, Whitney Lanier, James Conners, Jayden Gardiner) won third place in the MS Div.3 competition, beating out 29 other MS teams.
Dean of the Allen E. Paulson College of Science and Technology Dr. Bret Danilowicz was there to observe the event, which is run by the college’s Mathematics Department faculty. Dr. Susie Lanier organized the tournament, while Dr. Donna Saye was in charge of logistics.
There were divisions in each of the three levels of competition: Middle School (MS); Junior Varsity (JV); and Varsity (V). All of the students first took an individual math test. After breaking for lunch, everyone reassembled at Hanner Fieldhouse.
Here, the real “fun” began. In this, the public part of the competition, students from all levels and divisions were paired up into teams of two for the ciphering event. There were so many students that there were two rounds of eight questions for which they were allotted two minutes.
How fast the team got the right answer determined how many points they earned. If the team answered the question correctly within the first minute, they got full credit. If they answered it within the second minute period, then they got half credit.
After both rounds were, scores were tabulated. During this interval, there was musical entertainment, which quickly devolved into a series of birthday songs.
When Dr. Lanier approached the microphone with the results, the gym became absolutely quiet: After the awards were given out to the winners of the Computer Stars challenge, the individual scores were announced for all three levels, first for individuals and then for teams.
Bulloch County public school students stole the show in their respective divisions and levels. Southeast Bulloch Middle School’s team (Cory Graham, Emiry Blitch, Haley Davis, Merekate Schlierf) won third place in the MS Div.2 team competition, beating out 30 other teams.
Southeast Bulloch High School won even more awards in both the individual and team competitions.
Leading the pack was Greg Parker, who beat out 106 other students in V Div.2 to take first place in the individual award. His team (Greg Parker, William Groover, Nathan Davis, Brianna Goodman) won first place in the V Div.2 team competition, beating out 29 other teams for top honors.
SEB’s second varsity team (Sam Hicks, Tim Montgomery, Joel Page, Kristian Terrell) took third place in the same category. In addition, SEB High School’s JV Div.2 team (Tea Bibeti, Bridget Devlin, Forest Strickland, Joseph Strickland) won first place in their competition, beating out 20 other teams for this honor.
Statesboro High School’s Colby Parker and Julie Shen each won individual awards at their levels: Colby beat out 36 other students to take first place in the JV Div.1 competition; and Julie beat out 78 individuals in the V Div.1 competition to take third place.
Colby’s team (Colby Parker, Calvin Campopiano, Jeffrey Li, Supriya Immaneni) also finished in first place in JV Div.1, beating out 20 other teams. Shen’s team (Julie Shen, John Hunter Bowen, Josh Pollak, Brett Reichard) overall scores tied those of the Evans County High School team for the second highest totals in the V Div.1 competition.
Both teams’ individual and team scores were identical, a first for this competition. Dr. Lanier explained that there would be no tiebreaker and both teams were declared second place finishers, beating out 19 other teams for this honor.
Finally, Trinity Christian’s team (Charity Ruth Bray, Whitney Lanier, James Conners, Jayden Gardiner) won third place in the MS Div.3 competition, beating out 29 other MS teams.