Huntington Shines in Suffolk Math Tournament

Huntington UFSD was well represented at last week’s Suffolk County Math Tournament. A group of fifth and sixth graders made their presence in the competition felt with the sixth place team winning first place and fifth grade team battling its way to fifth place.

The tournament’s questions have always been tricky, multi-step and challenging, but this year’s were especially difficult. Huntington’s competitors were ready.

“I had 10 Math Olympiad students participate in the Suffolk County Math Tournament, competing against about 350 students in grades 4-6 from 70 teams across the country,” said Jessica Risalvato, Huntington’s SEARCH/Math Olympiad teacher and coach. “The students participated in both an individual session and a team session.”

In addition to the team honors, Woodhull Intermediate School third grader Michael Spagnoletti grabbed third place and Woodhull sixth grader Nico Chan Camargo captured seventh place. Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School fifth grader Owen Jennings finished in ninth place.

The fifth grade team was comprised of five Jack Abrams School students while the sixth grade team was a combination of Woodhull and Jack Abrams School students.

“I’m so proud of their hard work and effort,” Ms. Risalvato said.

The international Math Olympiad program debuted in 1979. There are currently 120,000 students from all 50 US states and 39 countries participating in it. The objectives of the program are to “teach multiple strategies for out-of-the-box problem solving, develop mathematical flexibility in solving those problems and foster mathematical creativity and ingenuity,” according to the organization.