The 2020 MATHCOUNTS West Alabama Regional Competition

The 2020 MATHCOUNTS Tuscaloosa Chapter Competition was held at the University of Alabama, on Feb 22, 2020. Fifty (50) students participated in the competition, from seven middle schools, The Alberta School of Performing Arts, Eastwood Middle School, the Capitol School, Northridge Middle School, Tuscaloosa Academy, Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools-Middle, Westlawn Middle School. We thank the strong support and significant sponsorship from the Office of The University of Alabama Vice President for Community Affairs. We thank the full support from Tuscaloosa City School Superintendent’s Office to recruit schools.

We sincerely thank our generous sponsors: The University of Alabama’s Division of Community Affairs, Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa Inc., Tuscaloosa Chapter of Alabama Society of Professional Engineers, Mathnasium-Tuscaloosa. The College of Engineering, University of Alabama provided facility and personnel support. The 2020 MATHCOUNTS Tuscaloosa Chapter Competition would not happen without their support.

We thank the volunteers and colleagues, Dr. Amanda Koh (Keynote speaker and CDR moderator), Dr. Yuanyuan Song (for leading the scoring efforts), Cari Staats (for recruiting volunteers), and Daniel Williams (for moderating written tests).  We specially thank the student group from Alpha Omega Epsilon at the University of Alabama to help with registration, lunch, awards, setting-up and cleaning-up, etc.

Program and highlights

School and Student Awards

Team Awards

• First place team: Northridge Middle School (Coach: Tu-Anh Tran) with team students: Charles Gambril, Brian Jeong, Alice Song, and Eric Wang.
• Second place team: Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools – Middle (Coaches: Stephanie Thomas and Allison Sanders) with team students: Ella Frantom, Sophia Guo, Sunny Shen, and Jeffrey Zhao.

Count-Down Round Awards

• First place: Eric Wang, Northridge Middle School
• Second place: Edan Eyal, Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools – Middle
• Third place: Brian Jeong, Northridge Middle School
• Fourth to eighth place: Malcolm Roberts (The Capitol School), Abhai Anand (Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools – Middle), Yiwen Wang (Northridge Middle School), Charles Gambril (Northridge Middle School), Sophia Guo (Tuscaloosa Magnet Schools – Middle)

Written Test Awards

Individual awards were given at three grade levels:

• 6th-Grade Ranking: Eric Wang (first place), Sophia Guo (second place), and David Wang (third place)
• 7th-Grade Ranking: Malcolm Roberts (first place), Eleanor Liang (second place), Alice Song (third place)
• 8th-Grade Ranking: Edan Eyal (first place), Abhai Anand (second place), and Brian Jeong (third place)

MATHCOUNTS Special Service Award

Special Service Award was presented to Mr. Kenneth Webb, Secondary Curriculum Specialist, Tuscaloosa City School District, for his effort to recruit local public schools to participate in 2019 and 2020 MATHCOUNTS local competitions.