Sycamore hosted the Central Indiana Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition on February 18. More than 160 students from 19 schools participated in the first round of the popular middle school math competition. Sycamore was led by Akshay Guttikonda, who placed 2nd overall, trailing Creekside's Kevin Hu by a single point. Taking home 3rd place was Sycamore's Alex Lu. Finishing in 5th, 6th, and 7th place were Jonathan Yang, Michael Fryburg, and Insia Zaidi, respectively. Kaden Xu was 9th place, Kaitlyn Park 11th, Nelson You 16th, Justin Puno 19th, and David Jiang 20th place. This was the first time Sycamore placed all 10 students in the top 20 and we are happy to report this qualifies all 10 students for the state competition on March 14th at Rose Hulman.
MATHCOUNTS is also a team competition with 4 individuals from each school designated as the official team. The team score is comprised of the average of the individual scores plus an additional team round. The Sycamore team of Akshay, Jonathan, Alex, and Nelson finished in 1st place overall out of the 19 schools.
The awards ceremony included a buzzer competition called the countdown round. In this lightning-quick competition, students dazzle the crowd, leaving many to wonder, "how did they do that?" The top 16 students compete in a bracket-style competition. Sycamore students fared very well with Alex Lu, Kaitlyn Park, and Akshay Guttikonda making up 3 of the 4 semi-finalists. In the finals, Akshay edged out Kaitlyn to earn the title of Countdown Round Champion.