Hockey and basketball aren't the only competitions that heat up in March. Math whizzes, too, get their time to shine in the cold prespring sunlight.
Every mid-March, Minnesota's brightest middle-school math students compete in the MATHCOUNTS program, a joint project of the National Society of Professional Engineers and many businesses that was launched in 1983. In Minnesota, the tourney is coordinated by volunteers from the Minnesota Society of Professional Engineers.
On Saturday, four young math masters nabbed top honors at the competition, held at the Crowne Plaza Conference Center in Plymouth:
• First place: Michael Tang, an eighth-grader at Valley View Middle School in Edina.
• Second place: Matthew Qu, a sixth-grader at Wayzata Central Middle School in Plymouth.
• Third place: Amith Bhat, an eighth-grader at Lake Middle School in Woodbury.
• Fourth place: Richard Huang, a seventh-grader at Kellogg Middle School in Rochester.
The four, who were among 132 participants representing 43 state schools, will form the team that will represent Minnesota in the national MATHCOUNTS event in Washington, D.C., in May.
