Lemont Mathletes Advance to State Finals in Three Events

With its performance at the Joliet Junior College Regional on February
25, Lemont High School’s Mathletes squad - which finished among its
division’s top 20 teams in state finals competition each of the last
four years - fell just short of qualifying as a team for the 2012
Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) State Finals.
However, Lemont did advance competitors in three events to take part in
the ICTM Division 3AA State Finals, which will be contested on Saturday,
May 5, on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Lemont finished third of six teams at the Joliet Junior College
Regional, totaling 426 points. Providence Catholic (456) won the ICTM
Regional, while Plainfield North (428) edged Lemont for the runner-up
position. Yorkville (383) and Plainfield East (284) rounded out the top
five. Providence Catholic earned automatic qualification to the ICTM
Division 3AA State Finals by winning the regional.

In team events, entries can qualify for state finals competition in one
of three ways: finishing in first place at a regional with four or more
schools competing; placing among the top ten teams statewide in their
event (regardless of region); or scoring at or above the minimum
qualifying score in their event.

Lemont tied with Providence Catholic for the top spot in the Geometry
Written Team competition, with both teams posting scores of 88.
Lemont’s entry - consisting of sophomores Jimmy Chakkalakel, Jarrod
Hanson, Zak Krepps, Robert Rigler, Margaret Rogers and Joe Ziebell -
brought home the school’s only regional title in 2012.

Competing in the Oral Presentation category, the tandem of juniors Kim
Gannon and Penelope Strid posted a score of 42, finishing as the
regional runner-up to a squad from Romeoville (47). However, Lemont’s
score tied for seventh among entries across the state, earning Gannon
and Strid a trip to the state finals.

In individual competitions, students can qualify to compete in the
state finals in one of three ways: finishing among the regional’s top
three individuals (for regionals with between 4-7 schools); placing
among the top 25 individual scorers statewide in their topic, as
determined by raw score (regardless of region); or scoring at or above
the minimum qualifying score in the competition.

Junior Lynn Stanwyck was Lemont’s only individual state finals
qualifier, as she finished first among the regional’s competitors in
the Algebra II competition. Though they were a part of a
state-qualifying event team, Hanson and Krepps also tied for second
among all individuals in the Geometry competition.

Lemont’s Mathletes team is coached by Erin Hitchcock, Angela Marshall
and Ken Suslek.