Math Olympiad challenges younger Harrington students

The Math Olympiad teams competed Saturday, May 7, 2011. Every year the Harrington School District sends teams to Eastern Washington University to compete in a math competition called Math Olympiad. Robbee Kiefer, Alex Bruce, Megan Shafer, and Dalton Wilkie made up our fourth/fifth-grade team scoring as the top fifth-grade team, earning an "Excellent" ribbon in the overall competition. They earned one “Excellent” in Number Sense, two “Very Goods” in Problem Solving and Geometric Sense and three “Goods” in Measurement, Algebraic Sense and Probability and Statistics on their score card.

The sixth-place team consisted of Caleb Behrens, Alexis Morrison, Mariah Schoenfelder and Christopher Wyatt. Their score card earned only “Good” in all areas.

The seventh-grade team included Lanessa Simon, Isabelle Phillips, Derek and Jacob Montgomery. They earned a “Very Good” in Problem Solving, “Very Good” in Geometric sense and an “Excellent” in Number Sense.

The eighth-grade team consisted of Jordyn Tanke, Samantha Nighswonger and Jenna Shafer (Christopher Brown was absent due to illness). Their score card earned all “Goods” in all areas.

The school board approved travel money allowing the children to participate in this extra-curricular activity. The teams spent four months during lunch time with coaches Denise Hoffman (fourth/fifth and sixth-grade teams) and Dale Wargo (seventh- and eighth-grade teams) preparing for this competition. Amy Yirak volunteered to run and bring snacks.