For the first time ever, a Freeport Middle School student has qualified for the MathcountsNational Competition after finishing third in the state competition.
Freeport eighth grader Zach Farlow-Pour will crunch the numbers in mid-May in Orlando, Florida. Farlow-Pour is one of 212 students competing in the Mathcounts’ national competition, which has four-student teams compete from all 50 states and three U.S. territories.
“Having a student qualify for nationals is absolutely wonderful, but I am most proud of what my students accomplish in the classroom,” said Alex Briasco-Brin, seventh and eighth grade accelerated math teacher for Regional School Unit 5.
Nine teams with 60 students representing 15 different schools competed in the state’s Mathcounts competition, with Freeport Middle School coming in third place overall. The contest has two rounds, the first being individual and the second a team round, followed by a “countdown round” for the top 10 mathletes.
This year was Farlow-Pour’s third time competing in the state Mathcounts competition. He said he finds it rewarding to tackle challenging math problems. Farlow-Pour will represent Freeport, along with three students from Falmouth, in the national competition.
Five other Freeport eighth graders competed in the Mathcounts state competition on Saturday, March 14, at the Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Sam Goldman got 14th place, Logan Ellis finished 22nd, Aaron Shaw got 23rd place, Logan Ellis finished 22nd, Toby Trahan finished in 35th place, Bode Kaikini got 36th place, and Riley Martin finished in 40th place, said Boyd Snowden, Mathcounts coordinator for the Maine Society of Professional Engineers.
The Mathcounts competition is part of a nonprofit organization called the Mathcounts Foundation, founded in 1983 in collaboration with the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Insurance. NASA and the U.S. Department of Education also provide support.
The Mathcounts competition series has four levels — school, chapter, state and national — for math students in grades sixth through eighth to compete.
“The math in of itself is just really fun, and to just know that you can solve these problems whereas a lot of people can’t,” Farlow-Pour said.
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