LHS Mathletes Win Regionals, Head To State Competition

LEMONT, IL — Lemont High School’s Mathletes squad has earned a berth to the 2019 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics State Finals by winning the Joliet area regional competition on Feb. 23 at Joliet Junior College. The school said Lemont, which won its sixth regional title in seven years, will compete in the ICTM Division 3AA State Finals on Saturday, May 4, on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

According to the school, Lemont placed among the top two in all 10 events, which included seven first-place finishes, and also posted first-place finishes in all four individual competitions. The squad finished with a team score of 382, comfortably ahead of runner-up Willowbrook (303). Lemont’s team victory earned it an automatic qualification to the ICTM Division 3AA State Finals.

Nine competitors earned top-three individual finishes for Lemont, including senior Kirsten Kash (Pre-Calculus), juniors Caroline Bukowski and Aubrey Molitor (Algebra II), sophomore Ethan Ragasa (Geometry) and freshmen Hiba Ayub and Isabella Wilton (Algebra I), who all placed first in their respective competitions, the school said.

The school said Kash and fellow seniors Anna Goranski, Samantha Herce, Natalie Lassak, Natalie Palarz and Katrina Retzke teamed to win the Pre-Calculus Written Team competition. Bukowski and Molitor were joined by juniors Manisha Joseph, Kyra Kho, Jacob Pulido and Kaytlin Timbers in winning the Algebra II Written Team competition. Ragasa paired with sophomores Matas Carmichael, William Gorski, Michael Haughey and Kelsi Padalia to capture the Geometry Written Team competition, while Ayub and Wilton and freshmen Kayley Cronin, Sunny Rana, Andrew Tilly and Gloria Wang triumphed in the Algebra I Written Team competition.

Other winning teams included Palarz and Ragasa in the Junior/Senior 2-Person Team category; Ayub, Carmichael, Gorski, Haughey, Padalia, Tilly, Wang and Wilton in the Freshman/Sophomore 8-Person Team category; and Pulido, Rana, senior Lucy Conway and junior Megan Zhou in the Calculator Team competition, according to LHS.

Goranski, Joseph, Kash, Kho, Lassak, Molitor, Palarz and junior Taylor Shimkus also placed second in the Junior/Senior 8-Person Team competition. Goranski and Kash (Oral Team) and Haughey and Padalia (Freshman/Sophomore 2-Person Team) also posted runner-up finishes.

Goranski (Pre-Calculus), Padalia (Geometry) and Wang (Algebra I) all finished third in their respective categories in individual competitions.

Lemont’s Mathletes team is coached by Angela Marshall, Dardrae Breig and Ken Suslek.