MSMS won second place overall at the annual Mu Alpha Theta State Convention held at Jackson Preparatory School on April 12-13.

Junior Angelina Tan competed in the Statistics written test, Table Talk, Hustle and Interschool.

“I’m proud we won second place,” Tan said. “Everyone worked hard preparing and did well at the convention.”

MSMS math teacher Lauren Zarandona is the vice president of the convention, a role that requires editing and printing the tests, certificates and rules for the event. She also runs the scoring during the convention. She said the convention is an opportunity for students to share their talent for math with others.

“Everyone attends [the convention] to do math for fun,” Zarandona said. “There is no grade attached, just an opportunity to be the best mathematician you can be.”

Senior Grant Zhang competed in the Calculus written test, Interschool, Potpourri and Advanced Ciphering. He said he was glad to win first in each, but it was more fun to talk to the other competitors at the event.

“It was cool to meet people from other schools, and I got to see people I knew from other math competitions too,” Zhang said.

Tan said she and her Table Talk teammates presented their project on orbital mechanics in front of everyone, which helped improve her speaking skills.

“It was a way to showcase public speaking,” Tan said. “You wouldn’t think that happens at a math tournament, but it does.”

Zarandona said the MSMS students who attended the convention worked well together as teams.

“They prepared, listened to advice from me and Mrs. K and listened to each other,” she said.

All results are listed below.

Individual Awards

College Algebra:

Kerrington Land – 9th place

Leslie Zheng – 2nd place 

Trigonometry/Pre-calculus:

Anthony Chen – 3rd place

JD Miller – 1st place

Statistics: 

Raymond Yang – 9th place

Colin Chung – 5th place 

Angelina Tan – 2nd place

Calculus: 

Kyler Boothe – 9th place

Khang Tran – 4th place

JT Sistrunk – 3rd place

Grant Zhang – 1st place

Team Awards:

Table Talk – 2nd place

Banner – 8th place

Scrapbook – 3rd place

Video – 3rd place

Team Logo – 3rd place

Intermediate Ciphering – 2nd place

Advanced Ciphering – 1st place

Potpourri – 1st place

Hustle – 1st place

Relay – 4th place

Interschool – 1st place 

Overall Sweepstakes – 2nd place