On Nov. 6, West’s Mu Alpha Theta club traveled to Platteville, Wisconsin. Led by club advisor and mathematics teacher James Kirpes, the Mu Alpha Theta team competed at the 51st annual University Platteville High School Mathematics Competition. Hailing from Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, 550 students competed from 31 different schools. With a series of individual high scores, the Mu Alpha Theta team garnered enough wins to take home the first place prize.
Raphy Policeni ’28, Edmund Svoboda ’28, Lisa Soka ’28 and Helena Yang ’28 competed at the Level 1 division. The competition ended with Policeni and Yang both making the All-Academic Team.
“[The All-Academic Team] translates basically as the top 20% of the contestants,” Kirpes said.
From the Level 1 competitors, West sent three Northwest Middle School students. Maximilian Hing ’29, Awen Li ’29 and Tommy Gao ’29 competed with all three qualifying for the All-American Team.
Kai Merrill ’25, Steve Zeng ’25, Tita Lessa ’27, Aiden Zheng ’27, Erin Chen ’27 and Jaynou Ma ’28 competed at the Level 2 division with Merrill, Zeng, Zheng and Ma making the All-Academic Team as well.
Though the Level two team was missing some vital members, the underclassmen stepped up to the role.
“We were missing several of our most capable members,” Merrill said. “[We] ended up putting some underclassmen on varsity. Despite all this, the underclassman team still did really well and our varsity team did too.”
Chen, one of the underclassmen that was moved up a level, shares her thoughts on how the competition went.
“The competition was a fun and challenging experience where I got to meet hundreds of other math enthusiasts,” Chen said.
The Mu Alpha Theta team isn’t stopping here, as they will be hosting their own mathematics competition at West Nov. 23.
“Our next competition will be the second of five qualifying events for Mathleague State,” Merrill said.
This is only the beginning of a long road for the mathletes, however, as they continue to strive for nothing less than excellence.
