Antilles School Wins STTJ 2017 MATHCOUNTS Competition

ST. THOMAS — The Virgin Islands Department of Education hosted its annual St. Thomas-St. John district 2017 MATHCOUNTS Chapter Competition on Thursday, February 16, 2017 in the Bertha C. Boschulte (BCB) Middle School library.

The competition, which was comprised of a sprint round, target round, team round, and a speedy one-on-one countdown round, lasted five hours, and in the end, the four-person Antilles School team retained the title of district champions following their 2016 win.

The Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School and Peter Gruber International Academy also participated in this year’s competition that yielded twenty-four students in the sixth through eighth grades. The Peter Gruber team placed second and BCB won third place.

 The competition was facilitated by Avon Benjamin, district math coordinator who expressed his satisfaction with the competition and future plans.

“I definitely enjoyed the participants and their enthusiasm, especially toward the end during the Countdown round. The competition was intense, the math problems were advanced and I think they did very well. The level of skill and discipline needed to compete at this level is profound and they were prepared.” said Mr. Benjamin. “The competition will be larger next year. I will try to recruit a variety of students to participate because competitions like this broaden students’ horizons in the STEM fields and feed their potential in Math.”

St. Thomas – St. John District Deputy Superintendent Michael Harrigan brought forth congratulatory remarks on behalf of the Office of the Insular Superintendent and praised all of the teams for participating in the annual rigorous math competition.

“I know this is an awful lot of work, getting ready for MATHCOUNTS every year, but I get the sense that it’s worth it when I see your faces right now,” started Mr. Harrigan. “We love MATHCOUNTS because it brings some of the best and brightest students together for some healthy competition.”

The Top 10 students from the St. Thomas-St. John district will compete against the Top 10 in the St. Croix district on March 16 at the State MATHCOUNTS Competition. Following that competition, four winners will be selected to represent the Territory at the 2017 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Championship, slated for May 14-15 in Orlando, FL

Along with the Department of Education, the event was sponsored by Rotary Club of St. Thomas II, which absorbed the costs associated with the Chapter competition, including trophies, plaques and meals. 

The Top 10 mathletes from the St. Thomas-St. John district are as follows in order of rank:

1. Kashish Chainani                    Antilles School
2. Mohit Mirpuri                         Antilles School
3. Ronit Totwani                         Antilles School
4. Tanya Mirchandani                 Antilles School           
5. Mitchell Turnbull, Jr.               Antilles School
6. Kira Mitchell                           VI Montessori/Peter Gruber International Academy
7. Alessandro Gever                   Antilles School
8. Aishwarya Nagpal                  Antilles School
9. Arman Israni                           Antilles School
10. Jahan Daswani                        Antilles School

Feature Image: Winning MATHCOUNTS team for STTJ district, Antilles School with coach Michele Humphries, Deputy Superintendent Michael Harrigan and Math coordinator Avon Benjamin. (Credit: D.O.E.)