Potts finished in top half at State Mathcounts competition

The Nebraska State MATHCOUNTS test took place Thursday, March 25th. Perkins County eighth grader Ryder Potts finished 15th of 35 students across the state.

MATHCOUNTS is a national competition put on by the Society of Professional Engineers. The goal of the competition is to get kids grades six through eight more interested in mathematics and engineering.

Perkins County Schools, according to MATHCOUNTS coach Troy Kemling, has been allowing seventh and eighth graders to participate in the competition for six years now, and though students have made it to state before, it has been several years since that happened.

Before the state competition, Potts had placed fourth at the regional competition. He was selected to compete at regionals based on chapter test scores of students from Perkins County. The top two students from the county were able to compete at regionals.

Potts’ fourth place finish allowed him to move on to state, as they allowed the top four from each region to continue forward. Seventh grader Brenna Colglazier also competed at regionals where she placed 18th.

Along with the top four students from each region, the next 10 highest scores from regionals moved on to State.

Kemling noted the region starts in Grant and extends to York, then Beatrice, to McCook and back to Grant, and it includes 36 schools.

“[Potts] did really well with 15th at State,” Kemling said. “He competed against schools that have advanced programs, where some of their students would be taking high school classes at that point as eighth graders. And you have students from larger schools that just have more opportunities and some private schools that might even have a math emphasis.”

“So for him to do that well is really exceptional,” he continued.

Part of the test is calculator-based, and the other part does not allow calculators. Each test takes around 90 minutes, and this year all tests were online, something different from past years due to the pandemic.

“Ryder adjusted really well to the new format,” Kemling said, though he did note at the time of the regional test, Potts accidentally took an entire practice test by accident and didn’t realize until after he had finished. Even after having to take two tests back-to-back in around two and a half hours, Potts was able to qualify for State.

The top four students from the State contest move on to Nationals. Unfortunately Potts did not qualify for Nationals, nor did any students from the Midstate chapter region, Kemling noted.

“We knew it was going to be hard, but he gave his best effort,” Kemling added. “With each test the problems get progressively harder.”

According to Kemling, there is a lot of preparation that goes into getting ready for the MATHCOUNTS contests.

Students are expected to memorize number facts, formulas, sequences and more, which Kemling said is a lot of information for the students to take in and memorize.

Interested students began studying the material in September, and have been meeting each Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. to go over math problems for around five months before competitions begin.

“As an incentive to get the kids to practice I bring doughnuts,” Kemling said, adding that he appreciated the kids coming in all year with a smile on their faces, ready to work and ready to learn someting new.

Though Potts is an eighth grader and this is his last year to compete in MATHCOUNTS, Kemling said Colglazier’s results show she has the capability to come back next year and do even better than she did this year.