MATH TEAM 2012
Renewing Success
CAPTAIN
CAMERON EASLEY (Mu Alpha Theta President, State team member)
CAMERON EASLEY (Mu Alpha Theta President, State team member)
LIEUTENANTS
HEEYOON KIM (State team member, ARML, Varsity MVP)
ANIKA REZA (Mu Alpha Theta Vice-President, Advanced Math MVP)
BRIAN SILVA
VARSITY TEAM MEMBERS
Gedeion Addisu
Ishmael Ahmed
Indi Brown
Rob Bruton
Carmen Candal (Mu Alpha Theta Secretary)
Briana Cowles
Brandon Culver
Chris Dasilva
Johnathan Davis (Math Team Scholarship winner)
Jovan Deas
Kellie Fair
Jahvan Innerarity
Jasmine Johnson
Shoman Kasbekar
Gabe Kustick
Stein Lobo
Alex Mann
Jason Mitchell (State team member, Calculus MVP, ARML)
Clare Morganelli
Kaleb Ponder
Collin Shamley
Anna Grace Slifko
Andrew Smith
Lamisa Syed
Lindsey Theodore
Zach York (GHP)
JUNIOR VARSITY TEAM MEMBERS
Abenet Addisu
Jeff Bang
Sidney Billingsly
Dominic Dixon
Jaire Duncan
Ray Garner (Precalculus MVP)
Ashley Hong
Ansley Kaiser
Samah Khan
Jeremy Rachels (State team member, JV MVP, ARML)
Naomi Siddiquee (Math II MVP)
Samer Yassin
Michelle Zhang
The 2011-2012 school year was a year of renewal. This was the first full school year in which we enjoyed our new school building. It was the year we hosted not only the annual Rockdale Mathematics Competition, but also the first Rockdale County Middle School Math Tournament. This was the year we inaugurated Math Team-sponsored free math tutoring. And it was the year we renewed our desire to travel to as many tournaments as possible.
Our first tournament of the year was at North Fulton -- where Jeremy Rachels won first place! It was the first time anyone from Rockdale had placed at this tournament. This seemed like a good sign of things to come.
Our lieutenant, Anika Reza took charge of a new initiative: Math Team-sponsored math tutoring for free! After school every Monday until 4:30, Anika and other members of the Math Team placed themselves in the media center and helped anyone who needed it. Many Magnet freshmen were saved from failing grades thanks to the Math Team. Anika also helped anyone who needed it every morning before school, too!
The Seventh Annual Rockdale Math Competition was held on October 28, 2011. We filled our new building to capacity -- and then some! Over 500 middle and high school students from all over Georgia registered to attend. Every classroom was filled and every space was utilized. Everyone on Math Team was there to ensure things ran smoothly (and some just ran: Kellie Fair and Johnathan Davis ran messages back and forth all day). The teams with the highest scores and the top individual in each subject were
Middle School: Sculley Academy; Andrew Fu, Webb Bridge
Junior Varsity: Northview High School; Sumit Sohani,
Northview
Varsity: Columbus High School; Wayne Lu, Wheeler.
Hard at work (?) at the Luella High School Math Tournament, October 8, 2011. Left to right: Gedeion Addisu, Johnathan Davis, Alex Mann, Brandon Culver.
The third place JV team at the Luella High School Math Tournament, October 8, 2011. Left to right: Ray Garner, Michelle Zhang, Jeremy Rachels, Naomi Siddiquee, and Abanet Addisu. Zach York is in the background because he wants you to buy candy bars.
The First place team at the Mercer University Tournament, November 12, 2011. Left to right: Shoman Kasbekar, Anna Grace Slifko, Jason Mitchell, Brian Silva, Heeyoon Kim (holding her second place plaque), Carmen Candal, and Cameron Easley. Not pictured is Anika Reza (because she was taking the picture!).
January brought what we hope to be the beginning of a new tradition. We ran our county’s first middle school math tournament! All four middle schools attended, bringing over 40 students, on January 28, 2012. Once again, members of the Math Team were on hand to help run the show. Cameron Easley and Brian Silva took charge of the event, ensuring things ran well. Davis Middle School was the the county winner, and Rasul Dent from Memorial was the individual winner.
As the year progressed, we started winning more tournaments. We continued our winning streak at Georgia Southwestern this year. However, after the tournament GSW issued a press release, promoting our win. Strangely, the local newspapers publicized this as a state tournament win. It is believed that they somehow misread “state-wide tournament” as “state tournament” in the press release.
The First place team at the Georgia Southwestern State University Tournament, January 20, 2012. Left to right: Jasmine Johnson, Dr. Garner, Heeyoon Kim, Jeremy Rachels, Kellie Fair, Cameron Easley, Anika Reza, Johnathan Davis, Jason Mitchell, Shoman Kasbekar, Brian Silva, and Ms Mickle.
The First place team at the Armstrong Atlantic State University Tournament, February 18, 2012. Left to right: Jason Mitchell, Zach York, Brian Silva, and Heeyoon Kim.
We went on four overnight trips this year: Georgia Southwestern in Americus, Armstrong Atlantic in Savannah, Furman University in Greenville, and Clemson University in Clemson. The tournament in Savannah was notable because it included a Relay Round... where the relay team members were not seated behind one another, but were seated in separate rooms! The students had to literally run from one room to the next to complete the relay. Thanks to Heeyoon, Jason, Brian, and Zach, we were the only team to complete the Relay correctly! (Brian, who was the fourth person in the relay, even deduced the correct answer before the others were finished, but was forced to wait for Jason to bring him an answer!)
The trip to Furman and the tournament while there was the best, however. Heeyoon, Zach, Jason, and Anika did not feel confident about their performance on the test, and they felt worse after the ciphering. We all felt sure we did not get anything. As teams were called, beginning with fourth place, our hopes sank further. But when Rockdale Magnet was called out as first place, our jaws dropped to the floor! It was a wonderful feeling to win unexpectedly.
This year was also the first year ever that Rockdale Magnet placed as high as Second on the Mandelbrot Contest, with Heeyoon Kim placing in the top 10 (higher than anyone from Rockdale Magnet has ever done). This year was also the first year that someone from Rockdale Magnet attended a tournament while wearing a pink Snuggie. Chris Dasilva will go down in Math Team history for this, because the struggle is real!
Our alumni continued to give back to the Math Team. Students from the classes of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 helped run this year’s Rockdale Math Competition, and Jonathan Johnson and Aaron Roberts (class of 2010) helped run the County Middle School Tournament as well. But the contribution from Kevin Todd and Drew Yaun (class of 2005) deserves special mention. They donated over 700 fresh, hot Kripsy Kreme doughnuts to give out at the Rockdale Math Competition, and donated thousands of dollars toward a Math Team Scholarship given to a deserving senior. Thanks to Drew and Kevin and all the alumni.
Finally, as an end-of-year project, the Math Team class totally revised the Book of Knowledge. It is more user-friendly, easier to understand, and useful for all grade levels. It will be published as a paperback and ready to release to Math Team members for the next school year!
The First place team at the Furman University Tournament, March 17, 2012. Left to right: Jason Mitchell, Anika Reza, Zach York, Jeremy Rachels, and Heeyoon Kim.
The First place Varsity team and the First place JV team at the Macon State College Math Olympics, March 23, 2012. Left to right: Michelle Zhang, Jeremy Rachels, Ray Garner, Anika Reza, Gedeion Addisu, Carmen Candal, Heeyoon Kim, behind her is Anna Grace Slifko, behind her is Cameron Easley, Kierston Jackson, Jason Mitchell, behind him is Gabe Kustick, Andrew Smith, Shoman Kasbekar, Zach York, and Jahvan Innerarity.
The Fouth place school at the Clemson Calculus Challenge, April 20, 2012. Left to right: Anna Grace Slifko, Carmen Candal, Janki Patel, Gedeion Adisu, Kellie Fair, Preston Turner, Anika Reza, and Heeyoon Kim laying across everyone.
Below you will find our record of placements at the tournaments the Math Team attended this school year. Team awards are listed first, with individual awards listed after the team member’s name.
September 24, 2011, North Fulton Invitational, Alpharetta.
7th place JV team: Jeff Bang, Dominic Dixon, Samah Khan, Jeremy Rachels (1st place), Naomi Siddiquee, Chiann Wilson, Samer Yassin, Michelle Zhang.
8th place Varsity team: Chris Dasilva, Jahvan Innerarity, Heeyoon Kim, Gabe Kustick, Jason Mitchell, Anika Reza, Brian Silva, Lamisa Syed, Lindsey Theodore, Zach York.
October 8, 2011, Luella High School Invitational, Locust Grove.
3rd place JV team: Abenet Addisu, Ray Garner, Ansley Kaiser, Jeremy Rachels (3rd place), Naomi Siddiquee, Michelle Zhang.
6th place Varsity team: Gedeion Addisu, Brandon Culver, Johnathan Davis, Cameron Easley, Heeyoon Kim, Alex Mann, Brian Silva, Zach York.
October 15, 2011, University of Georgia Mathematics Tournament, Athens.
25th place team: Gedeion Addisu, Brandon Culver, Chris Dasilva, Jovan Deas, Heeyoon Kim, Gabe Kustick, Alex Mann, Jason Mitchell, Clare Morganelli, Jeremy Rachels, Anika Reza, Brian Silva, Anna Grace Slifko, Lindsey Theodore.
November 12, 2011, Mercer University Mathematics Tournament, Macon.
1st place team: Carmen Candal, Cameron Easley, Shoman Kasbekar, Heeyoon Kim (2nd place), Jason Mitchell, Anika Reza, Brian Silva, Anna Grace Slifko
December 3, 2011, Lassiter High School Invitational Math Tournament, Marietta.
15th place JV team: Abenet Addisu, Jeff Bang, Ray Garner.
17th place Varsity team: Carmen Candal, Chris Dasilva, Johnathan Davis, Jasmine Johnson, Alex Mann, Andrew Smith, Lamisa Syed, Zach York.
January 20, 2012, Georgia Southwestern State University Mathematics Tournament, Americus.
1st place 4A team: Johnathan Davis, Cameron Easley (2nd place), Kellie Fair, Jasmine Johsnon, Shoman Kasbekar, Heeyoon Kim (1st place), Jason Mitchell (6th place), Jeremy Rachels (5th place), Anika Reza, Brian Silva (3rd place).
February 7, 2012, AMC
School winner, AMC10A: Jeremy Rachels
School winner, AMC12A: Heeyoon Kim
February 11, 2012, Creekview High School’s Saint Valentine’s Day Mathacre, Canton.
2nd place Varsity team: Brandon Culver, Cameron Easley (9th place), Jahvan Innerarity, Heeyoon Kim (3rd place), Gabe Kustick, Jason Mitchell (8th place), Brian Silva, Zach York (10th place)
3rd place JV team: Jaire Duncan, Ray Garner, Jeremy Rachels (1st place), Samer Yassin, Michelle Zhang (5th place).
February 18, 2012, Armstrong Atlantic State University Mathematics Tournament, Savannah.
1st place team: Heeyoon Kim (2nd place), Jason Mitchell (5th place), Brian Silva (3rd place), Zach York. 5th place team: Briana Cowles, Jahvan Innerarity, Alex Mann, Lamisa Syed. 10th place team: Gedeion Addisu, Gabe Kustick, Anika Reza, Anna Grace Slifko.
February 22, 2012, AMC
School winner, AMC10A: Jeremy Rachels
School winner, AMC12A: Heeyoon Kim
March 3, 2012, Georgia Tech High School Math Competition, Atlanta.
Varsity team: Ishmael Ahmad, Indi Brown, Cameron Easley (semi-finalist), Jahvan Innerarity, Jasmine Johnson, Jason Mitchell, Anika Reza, Lamisa Syed, Lindsey Theodore, Zach York.
JV team: Jaire Duncan, Jeremy Rachels (semi-finalist), Michelle Zhang (semi-finalist).
March 9, 2012, University of West Georgia Math Day, Carrollton.
3rd place school: Brandon Culver, Ray Garner, Jeremy Rachels (2nd place), Michelle Zhang (5th place); Carmen Candal, Cameron Easley (3rd place), Alex Mann, Jason Mitchell.
March 10, 2012, Greater Atlanta Christian School’s Dwight Love Math Tournament, Norcross.
4th place JV team: Abenet Addisu, Jeff Bang, Sidney Billingsly, Jaire Duncan, Ray Garner, Ashley Hong, Ansley Kaiser, Jeremy Rachels (3rd place), Naomi Siddiquee, Samer Yassin, Michelle Zhang.
6th place Varsity team: Gedeion Addisu, Ishmael Ahmad, Rob Bruton, Brandon Culver, Chris Dasilva, Johnathan Davis, Kellie Fair, Jahvan Innerarity, Jasmine Johnson, Heeyoon Kim (13th place), Gabe Kustick, Kaleb Ponder, Collin Shamley, Andrew Smith, Zach York.
March 17, 2012, Furman University Wylie Mathematics Tournament, Greenville, South Carolina.
1st place team: Heeyoon Kim, Jason Mitchell, Anika Reza, Zach York. Also attending: Jeremy Rachels (1st place JV).
March 23, 2012, Macon State College Math Olympics, Macon.
1st place JV team: Ray Garner (3rd place), Kierston Jackson, Jeremy Rachels (1st place), Michelle Zhang (2nd place).
1st place Varsity team: Gedeion Addisu, Carmen Candal, Cameron Easley, Jahvan Innerarity, Shoman Kasbekar, Heeyoon Kim (1st place), Gabe Kustick, Jason Mitchell (2nd place), Anika Reza, Anna Grace Slifko, Andrew Smith, Zach York (4th place).
April 20, 2012, Clemson Calculus Challenge, Clemson University, South Carolina.
5th place team and 4th place school: Gedeion Addisu, Carmen Candal, Kellie Fair, Heeyoon Kim, Anika Reza, Anna Grace Slifko, with special guests Janki Patel and Preston Turner.
April 28, 2012, GCTM State Mathematics Tournament, Macon.
2nd place team overall and AAAA Champions: Cameron Easley, Heeyoon Kim (4th place), Jason Mitchell (9th place and Steve Sigur Award Winner), and Jeremy Rachels (7th place).
