BASIS Ind. McLean Earns First Place at State MATHCOUNTS Contest

The BASIS Independent McLean (BIM) MATHCOUNTS team placed first in the MATHCOUNTS state championships in Richmond, Va. this past weekend; this is BIM’s second time participating and winning in the annual statewide MATHCOUNTS competition. BASIS Independent McLean MATHCOUNTS members, called Team SWEEP to represent a combination of their initials, include: Sam Wang (grade 7), Eleanor Kim(grade 8), Ethan Zhou (grade 7), and Pravalika Putalapattu (grade 8). Team SWEEP is led by Coaches Tyler Sullivan and Dr. Ryan Grove, a BIM math and science teacher. MATHCOUNTS state champions head to the 2018 MATHCOUNTS National Competition in Washington, D.C., May 12 to 15. For more information on BASIS Independent McLean, go to http://mclean.basisindependent.com.

In the individual MATHCOUNTS competitions, BIM student Putalapattu earned first place, while Zhou finished third and Wang earned fourth place. Fourteen MATHCOUNTS teams were
present at Virginia MATHCOUNTS State Competition and approximately 84 students
participated.

The Virginia State MATHCOUNTS team heading to the National MATHCOUNTS Competition in Washington, D.C. will be composed of the top four state individual winners: Putalapattu, Wang, Zhou, and
a Mercer Middle School student from Aldie, Va. The team will be trained by BIM
Coach Tyler Sullivan. The National MATHCOUNTS Competition will be streamed live
on ESPN3, with 224 competitors and 56 teams from around the United States.

“We’re extremely proud of our MATHCOUNTS students and coaches; their achievement is remarkable, considering BIM opened only two years ago and we have won first place for the second consecutive time,” said Ron Kim, Head of School at BASIS Independent McLean. “We’re rooting them on for the National Competition in May.”