FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington Middle School beats Private Schools in Hawaii MATHCOUNTS

HONOLULU, HI - Washington Middle School knocked off Iolani School and Punahou School to take first place in the 24^th Hawaii State MATHCOUNTS Competition on March 10, 2007 at Kamehameha Schools. This is an extraordinary feat because the Team Award has either gone to Iolani or Punahou since MATHCOUNTS started in Hawaii in 1984. The private schools had a lock on the first place title, but this time Washington Middle School armed with a team of Richard Chang, Julia Chen, Jonathan Huang, and Naoki Shigeta could not be beaten by the private schools. Their proud coaches are Cynthia Ching and Lance Iida.

MATHCOUNTS is a national math competition for 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders. Students compete individually in the Sprint Round solving 30 math problems in 40 minutes. Next comes the Target Round where students try to solve eight problems within approximately 30 minutes. The Team Round finishes the written portion of the competition. In this round students work together solving 10 problems in 20 minutes.

Washington Middle School was followed by second place Iolani School with team members Teresa Ou, Sam Savitz, Dustin Shigaki, Tracy Young, and coaches Li Ann Wada, Annette Matsumoto, and Larry Teske. Third place went to the Punahou team of William Chen, Alda Lam, Nicholas Lee, Sarah Loui, and coach Todd Chow Hoy. In fourth place was Waiakea Intermediate School with team members Mark Seu, Katherine Torigoe, Liann Yamashita, Erin Yoshida, and coaches Arlene Cabalce, Tanya Lee, and Michael McCumskey. Fifth place went to the Mililani Middle school team of William Gaul, Melissa Hamada, Kimberly Tatsuyama, Amy Yagi, and coaches Geri Hamada and Christopher Baxa. In sixth place was Parker School with team members Daniel Gregg, Kimo Hon, Mary Kamitaki, Annie Sturges, and coach Chitra Seshan. Ten finalist teams from the Chapter competitions through out Hawaii participated in this event. Clearly, three of the top six teams were public schools showing their proficiency in mathematics.

Most important are the individual performances. The public schools did very well. First place as a result of their total scores in the written individual testing of the Sprint and Target Rounds went to Richard Chang of Washington. He was followed by second place William Gaul of Mililani, third place Kimo Hon of Parker, fourth place Mark Seu of Waiakea, fifth place Naoki Shigeta of Washington, sixth place William Chen of Punahou, seventh place Dustin Shigaki of Iolani, eighth place Hao Chen of Iolani, ninth place Sam Savitz of Iolani, and tenth place Sarah Loui of Punahou.

These ten Mathletes qualified to compete in the final Countdown Round to determine which four would represent Hawaii at the National MATHCOUNTS Competition on May 11, 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Countdown Round is a fast-paced, oral competition for the top-scoring individuals. In this round, pairs of Mathletes compete against each other and the clock to solve problems. Calculators are not permitted. The pairing starts with the ninth and tenth place individuals. Three questions are read to each pair of Mathletes, one question at a time, and the Mathlete who scores the most points (not necessarily 2 out of 3) captures the place, progresses to the next round and challenges the next highest‑ranked student. This procedure continues until the fourth‑ranked Mathlete and her/his opponent compete. For the final four rounds, the first student to correctly answer three questions advances. The Countdown Round proceeds until a first‑place individual is identified.

The top four winners of the Countdown Round and going to the National are first, Naoki Shigeta of Washington, second, Richard Chang of Washington, third, William Gaul of Mililani, and Fourth, Kimo Hon of Parker. The official Hawaii State Team Coach, Cynthia Ching of Washington, will accompany them.

Deputy Superintendent, Clayton Fujie, Department of Education was on hand for this momentous occasion for the DOE. He along with Gail Hayashi, Manager, Corporate and Government Sales, aloha Airlines; Rowena Blaisdell, Director of Program Services, Kamehameha Schools; and Nathan Yuen, Director, Honolulu Chapter of the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) presented the awards.

Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., HSPE and Kamehameha Schools are major sponsors of Hawaii MATHCOUNTS.

Contact:

Ed Chang, 808/623-5910

Email: change025@hawaii.rr.com