US Math Team has another Excellent Year

The Upper School Math Team at St. Mark's tackles the toughest math contests they can find each year. Depending on the contest, they find themselves competing against the best school math teams in the DFW metroplex, the state, or the country. The team consists of about 15 boys who attend almost every contest along with another 5 or so who attend when they don't have a conflict. This year's achievements are a continuation of a long history of success in these challenging competitions. The toughest competitions (often containing the most difficult questions) are those sponsored by universities. Rice University, Texas A&M University, and Oklahoma State University sponsor three excellent annual math contests for high school students. The St. Mark's Upper School Math Team has won sweepstakes in at least two of these university events each of the past three years. This year they won sweepstakes at both Rice University and Oklahoma State University. This is a major accomplishment for our small traveling team of 14 students when other large schools from Houston, Dallas, or Austin may bring 30 or more students and win more points because they can enter more events. Also, the top three to five scores are counted in each event. So, our boys must do extremely well in the contests they enter in order to outscore our larger opponents.

There are other competitions that we administer here on campus even though we compete with a large group outside of our school. One of theses is the ARML (American Regional Math League) competition. It is actually an international math contest with a fall and spring event. The entire team tackles one large, multifaceted problem for 45 minutes and then submits their solution to be graded by mathematicians from Watson Laboratories of IBM and the National Security Agency. After both fall and spring parts this year, the St. Mark's Upper School Math Team finished fifth among all international teams.

The US Math Team also competes in the Mandelbrot Contest nationally, the Texas Math League Contest within the state, and the McNabb Contest sponsored by UT-Dallas for DFW metroplex teams. St. Mark's always finishes near the top in each of these contests as well. Many of the US Math Team members were given a great start in their endeavors by Dr. George Acuff in his work with the MS Math Team here at St. Mark's. The US Math Team is sponsored by mathematics teacher Joe Milliet. The many individual winners in these US contests are too numerous to mention here, but all the boys contribute to the success of the team and give St. Mark's a high profile in the mathematics community.