Antilles School And Good Hope Country Day Win MATHCOUNTS Competition, Students To Represent Territory In U.S.

ST. THOMAS — Antilles School students Kashish Chainani, Tanya Mirchandani, Aishwarya Nagpal and Good Hope Country Day’s Patrick Boring will represent the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 2017 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Championship slated for May 14-15, 2017 in Orlando, Fla., the Department of Education announced this afternoon.

The students earned the top scores in both the Sprint and Target rounds combined. The team will be coached by Michele Humphries of Antilles School.

The students won the rights to represent the Virgin Islands during State MATHCOUNTS competition held on Thursday at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School library. Chainani ranked first with a score of 22, Mirchandani second, scoring 13; Nagpal scored 11 and Boring ranked 4^th place with a score of 9.

State STEM Director Shamika Williams-Henley opened the event with brief remarks and welcomed the students to another year of the exciting math competition. She encouraged the students to do their best and above all, have fun.

The competition included a Sprint round—students are given 40 minutes to complete 30 math problems, Target round comprised of four pairs of problems in which students have six minutes each to complete and Team round which allows teams of four, 20 minutes to complete ten problems.

The remaining six students in the Top Ten, in order of rank are Mohit Mirpuri, Antilles; Alessandro Gever, Antilles; Jahan, Daswani, Antilles; Maya Griffith, Good Hope Country Day; Ronit Totwani, Antilles; and Molly Brownsdon of Good Hope Country Day.

The Antilles school team placed first in the Team Round and the Good Hope Country Day School team placed second.

The remaining mathletes in the V.I. State MATHCOUNTS competition were Mitchell Turnbull, Jr. and Arman Isranu of Antilles; Kira Mitchell of the Peter Gruber International Academy; Saba Alfred, Cehara Briscoe, Brice Richards and Colin Gray of Good Hope Country Day; Samantha Peter, Church of God; Marck Sinco and Christian St. Rose of John H. Woodson.

MATHCOUNTS is coordinated by math coordinators Juanita Boneque in the St. Croix district and Avon Benjamin in the St. Thomas-St. John district. Ludence Romney serves as the State MATHCOUNTS coordinator.

Representatives from the St. Thomas-St. John district served as proctors for the event. Deputy Superintendent Michael Harrigan facilitated the award presentation.

MATHCOUNTS is a national program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students. The program focuses on middle school students who are at a crucial stage in developing and sustaining math interest and ability.

Local sponsors of MATHCOUNTS include the Virgin Islands Department of Education, Rotary Club of St. Thomas II. All costs associated with the competition to include trophies, plaques, and meals for mathletes and officials were underwritten by the Rotary Club of St. Thomas II.

Feature Image: Deputy Superintendent Michael Harrigan, VI team coach Michele Humphries, VI team of four, Patrick Boring, Kashish Chainani, Tanya Mirchandani, Aishwarya Nagpal, STTJ district math coordinator Avon Benjamin and MATHCOUNTS State coordinator Ludence Romney. (Credit: Dept. of Education)