Radnor Middle Schoolers Win Math Contest, First Time In 20 Years

RADNOR, PA — Radnor Middle School's MATHCOUNTS team took home first place in the state MATHCOUNTS contest for the first time in more than two decades, the Radnor Township District said.

The RMS team won first place in the Pennsylvania State Competition in Harrisburg on March 16.

Not only did the team win, but Captain Skyler Le also finished fourth in the individual competition, earning him a ticket to the National MATHCOUNTS Competition May 11 through May 14 in Orlando as a member of the four-student PA team.

"I've worked with most of the team members for a long time, and I've known some of them for years," Le, an RMS 8th-grader, said. "Even though some members were participating for their first time, it felt like such a long journey that by the time the competition came around, we had developed trust with one another."

The team's coach Thomas Le, who also happens to be Skyler Le's dad, will also travel to Orlando as the coach of the Pennyslvania team for the competition being held. Thomas Le earned the coach of the top MATHCOUNTS team in the state.

"Everyone maintained a positive attitude, did their best and good things happened," said Thomas Le, who honed his coaching acumen during many years teaching math on Sundays at the Main Line Chinese Culture Center. "I asked all of my students to have the courage to live up to their full potential and they exceeded my expectations."

The other three students to earn spots on the Pennsylvania team are Vivian Loh from Winchester Thurston School in Pittsbugh; Ethan Liu from Valley Forge Middle School in Wayne; and Thrisha Kalpatthi from Marshall Middle School in Wexford.

For the most part, the RMS MATHCOUNTS team has been practicing each week, and occasionally several times a week, since December. In addition to earning first in Pennsylvania, the team took second in the Delaware County Chapter Competition on February 16.

"In addition to the formal MATHCOUNTS sessions at school, I spent months doing some light training, and then one month of intense training leading up to the State Competition," Skyler Le said.

"I am very appreciative of all my students as they gave up a lot of free time," Thomas Le said.

The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national middle school mathematics program that promotes mathematics achievement through a series of fun and engaging "bee" style contests.

The Competition Series has four levels of competition - school, chapter, state and national.