After two intense days of nonstop competition, Seminole High School’s Mu Alpha Theta returned home Sunday after claiming third place overall in the Florida Association of Mu Alpha Theta State convention.
Over the weekend at the Orlando Double Tree Hotel, Seminole’s finest math students battled with the best and brightest across the state in more than thirty separate tests and competitions covering Calculus, Pre-Calculus, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Statistics topics and performed well by all regards.
Seminole began this school year with some of the finest mathematicians in the history of the club on the team and, after finishing second at the 2012 state convention, was able to parlay that talent and dedication into another fine performance at the state convention.
Out of roughly 4000 total points earned by the top schools in the competition, Seminole finished less than 9 points behind American Heritage (Plantation) for second place and 200 points behind Buchholz for first place.
“I think there’s always room for improvement, but everybody did their best when testing time came around,” commented junior Ishika Khondaker, who finished 19th in Statistics.
“I am extremely proud of all of the work that we put in to get to third place this year,” said senior and Mu Alpha Theta President Arley Ruskin. “Although we were pushing for a higher place, I feel that we still represented Seminole well.”
Seminole enjoyed strong performances from all divisions. The Theta (Algebra 2/Geometry) and the Alpha (Pre-Calculus) teams finished second in their respective bowl competitions, while the Calculus team finished fourth in its division as well.
Some of the many notable individual performers were freshman Lisa Yang, who finished fifth in the Theta individual, first in Geometry, and second in Circles; freshman Olivia Xiang, who finished first in Functions and third in Theta Logs and Exponents; freshman Aradhya Kasera, who finished first in Theta Equations and Inequalities; sophomore Reeti Gulati, who finished first with a perfect score in Matrices and Vectors; sophomore Kyle Gettig, who finished eleventh in the Calculus individual and second in both BC Calculus and Number Theory; junior Adam Jaffer, who finished second in Integration; and sophomore Jessica Fang, who placed second in History of Statistics.
In alternate team events, Seminole also placed first in the fast-paced Hustle competition and third in the Relay competition.
“Buchholz, the top school in the state, improved even beyond what we anticipated based on previous years,” said sophomore Andrew Kwon, who was a part of the winning two-person Gemini test team, along with junior Alex Chen. “However, we will continue to strive for excellence and a chance to dethrone the reigning state champions.”
Although the team did not meet the lofty goal of winning a state title this year, there is reason to believe that Seminole can make another run at first again next year.
“We have some great students joining us from our local middle schools, and they will be assets to our team,” noted Ruskin. “Even though I can no longer compete myself, I will be cheering them on in their continued success.”
Full results for all tests are available at www.famat.org.