The Iowa City West High School Math Club, led by math teacher James Kirpes, competed on Saturday, May 17 at the Mathleague National Math Championship. Sponsored by the Great Plains Math League, the competition was held in St. Louis.  A total of 188 students from 80 schools in 20 states earned participated in this event. 21 of those students were from West High.

The Iowa City West Math Club won the National Math Championship, with 263.8 points, beating second place Valley Christian High School by nearly 30 points. This is the third year in a row they have won this competition.

West High won the Team Test with teammates Aiden Zhang ’27, Edward Li ’26, Catherine Xu ’26, Konnon Chen ’27, Raphy Policeni ’28 and Andrew Chen ’25.

For the countdown round, both Li and Xu placed; Xu won the round and Li received second place. These two were additionally the overall top finishers from West High.

West High earned second place in two categories, the Relay Round with teammates Li, Policeni and Konnon Chen, and the Power Question with Konnon Chen, Shannon Chen ’27, Zhang, Ethan Ding ’28 and Maximilian Hing ’29.

West also took first in several individual categories, with Li and Xu winning first and second place among juniors, respectively. For the seniors, Andrew Chen scored fourth place and Zhang placed fifth among the sophomores.

Because they finished within the top 10 for their grade, Li, Xu, Zhang and Andrew Chen earned places at the international math competition in Bali, Indonesia.

Correction: a previous version stated Catherine Xu ’26 won fourth place in the countdown round. This was incorrect; she placed first.