MATHCOUNTS Chapter Congratulations!

Today's MATHCOUNTS Capital District Chapter, one of the two largest and most competitive chapters in the state, brought together 150 students from 22 school teams around the Capital District.

The top 20 individual students were all mentored and/or coached by high school students from Albany Area Math Circle!

The top-ranking eight teams at chapter also had Albany Area Math Circle affiliated coaches.

Team rankings are as follows:



#1 Van Antwerp
(student coached by AAMC senior veteran Dave Bieber)




#2 Iroquois
(student coached by AAMC senior veteran Anagha Tolpadi and AAMC freshman Elizabeth Parizh; math circle parent Anil Tolpadi also coached; most of the Iroquois students are also members of the AAMC middle school math circle)



#3 Acadia
(student coached by AAMC junior Felix Sun and senior Eric Wang--all four members of their scoring team are also members of AAMC's middle school math circle)




#4 Farnsworth
(all four students on the scoring team plus the high scoring alternate are members of the Albany Area Math Circle middle school math circles mentored by Zubin Mukerjee and Noah Rubin.)




#5 heeg
(student coached by AAMC freshman Matthew Babbitt and math circle advisor Bill Babbitt)



#6 Shaker Junior High
(AAMC freshman Greg Hickey has assisted with coaching, and team high scorer Gili Rusak is a member of our middle school math circle.)



#7 Hebrew Academy of the Capital District
(coached by AAMC teacher volunteer Alexandra Schmidt)



#8 Koda Middle School
(student coached by AAMC vets Felix Sun and Eric Wang.)


The top 20 individuals on the written competition were:



#1 Aniket Tolpadi from Iroquois
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#2 Troy Wang from Acadia
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#3 Cecilia Holodak from Van Antwerp
(member of Albany Area Math Circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#4 David Luo from Acadia
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#5 Matt Gu from Farnsworth
(member of AAMC middle school math circle)

#6 Jerry Qu from Acadia
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#7 Jien Ogawa from Home Educators Enrichment Group (heeg)
(member of AAMC middle school math circles and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#8 Alexander Wei from Van Antwerp
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#9 Philip Sun from Acadia
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#10 Gili Rusak from Shaker
(member of AAMC middle school math circles and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#11 Bill Dong from Farnsworth
(member of AAMC middle school math circle)

#12 Isaac Smith from Home Educators Enrichment Group (heeg)
(member of AAMC middle school math circle in Niskayuna and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#13 Luxi Peng from Farnsworth
(member of AAMC middle school math circle)

#14 Isaac Malsky from Farnsworth
(member of AAMC middle school math circle)

#15 Shreya Arora from Iroquois
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#16 Suman Padhi from Iroquois
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#17 Martin Shreiner from Van Antwerp
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#18 Rajesh Bollapragada from Van Antwerp
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#19 Vineet Velangandula from Iroquois
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)

#20 Samir Menon from Iroquois
(member of AAMC middle school math circle and also on an AAMC student-coached team)



Cecilia Holodak won the countdown against awesome final round competition from last year's countdown winner Aniket Tolpadi!

Congratulations to all the student coaches and mathletes who participated and best of luck to the three teams advancing to state: Van Antwerp, Iroquois, and Acadia, as well as to Matt Gu and Jien Ogawa, who will advance to state as individuals.

Congratulations and major shout-outs as well as to Andrew Ardito, Zubin Mukerjee, and Noah Rubin, who have done awesome work as middle school math circle leaders, as well as to all the students who have helped out at our middle school math circles, including Matthew Babbitt, Preston Law, Felix Sun, Anagha Tolpadi, Schuyler and Wyatt Smith.

Thanks also--as always--to Sal Ervolinda, Vrinda Rajiv, and all the terrific volunteers from the Capital Distict Chapter of the NY Society of Professional Engineers and GE Global Research, who made this terrific event possible!

I have talked to other coaches from chapters all over the country and I do not know of another chapter that provides as spectacular an experience as our chapter: our chapter contest is held in a spectacular and awe-inspiring corporate research lab that traces its roots to Edison and Charles Steinmetz, can claim two Nobel prize winning work and thousands of patents for inventions that have improved our lives.