Bright young sparks make it count

Jeffrey Lin and Evan Lawler, both 11, and Caleb Jackson and Troy Brennan, both 12, were the winning Year 7 team at Mathex last week. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Young mathematicians did themselves proud at the annual Mathex competitions last week, racing against the clock to correctly answer 20 questions within 30-minute time frames.

The annual Mathex competitions at the Wanganui Intermediate School (WIS) hall last Wednesday involved 137 teams of four working to beat the clock.

Almost 550 children from Wanganui schools took part and competed in Year 5, Year 6, Year 7 and Year 8 competitions.

Questions submitted by several schools were compiled into sets of 20 questions for each level and teams were required to answer one question at a time.

Wanganui Intermediate maths teacher Dawn Duncum said the night went well and three teams "stopped the clock" by answering all questions correctly within the allocated 30 minutes.

The Fordell School Year 6 team answered all the questions in 15 minutes 50 seconds, the WIS Year 7 team completed the quiz in 28 minutes 54 seconds and the Fordell Year 8 team stopped the clock at 23 minutes.

"The results were very close at all levels and all the teams have reason to feel good about their efforts," said Mrs Duncum.

Some schools had more than one team competing.

Year 5: Mosston School - Matthew Leith, Philip Dale, Glen Mallet, Coby Chambers 1; Carlton School - Lindsay Jeans, Ada Brooking, Jeannie Hird, Qingwei Zhong 2; Durie Hill - Ethan Sutherland, Connor Giltrap, Georgia Abraham, Stella Ridgway 3.

Year 6: Fordell School - Lauren Phillips, Michael O'Neill, George Pearce, John Bryant 1; Hunterville School 1 - Zoe Nydegger Monks, Alex Legner, Ben Black, Harry Cherrie 2; St Georges School 1 - Elliot Jones, Ethan Ellwood, Daniel Burgess, Amy Mackery; Huntley School 1 - Josh Allpress, Sean Foote, Mathew Jamieson, William McDonald; St Johns Hill School 2 Nadeem Wali, Tom Wikinson-Smith, Lawrence Lu, Calum Sinclair; St Johns Hill School 4 Firooze Colaabavala, Blake Hoskin, Matthew Hocquard, Jonty Tripe; Westmere School 2 - Georgia Hodge, Kathryn Stirling, Millie Frampton, Samantha Hayes 3 equal.

Year 7: Wanganui Intermediate School 1 - Jeffrey Lin, Troy Brennan, Caleb Jackson, Evan Lawler 1; Wanganui Intermediate School 2 - Will Southee, Katie Walters-Gray, Mia Perkins, Clay Jenkinson 2; St Georges School - Harriet Yorston, Ngatatau Tumango, Caitlin Bielby, Alex Maskery 3.

Year 8: Fordell School - Rebekah Phillips, Georgia Bryant, Renee Biggs, Bridgitte O'Leary 1; Huntley School 1 James Craig, Josh Bergen- Bronson, Amelia Bradley, Holly Marshall 2; Wanganui Intermediate School 1 - Connor Hoskin, Sameed Khan, Sharon Xu, Basia Sosnowska and Westmere School 1 - Hannah Kemenator, Mahina Barritt, Sophie Andrews, Nathan Hoobin 3 equal.