GMS 2020 Math Team Beats GMS 2005 in Virtual Math Competition
Granville, OH – The GMS 2020 Math Team, consisting of four 6th graders, scored a stunning upset over the GMS 2005 Math Team in a virtual math competition held in mid-April. The GMS 2020 math team had a team score of 172, tying them for 8th in Ohio (out of 166 schools), and beating the GMS 2005 team score of 168. Individually, GMS 2020 had students rank 3rd (score of 38) and 11th (score of 37) in the state to help their team to its outstanding finish.
In addition to beating the Granville Middle School (GMS) 2005 team, GMS 2020 also finished 1st in its region, narrowly beating the 2005 Genoa Middle School team from Westerville by a score of 172 to 170. Given the vast difference in student populations (394 vs. 874), this was a major upset in the world of academic competitions.
This victory was even more surprising because of the youth of the GMS Math Team. The 7th grade contest is normally taken by 7th graders in February, but this time, it was taken by 6th graders in April, nearly one year early. The GMS 2020 math team also had significantly smaller numbers of participants to include in its team score.
Quotes from 2020 GMS Math Team after their victory:
– “I’m so excited about our new math team and how well it did in the first contest! But regardless of how we do in any competition, I just think it’s fun to solve math problems!”
– “It was a solid performance by Granville. With practice, we hope to improve at an exponential rate!”
– (Coach) “I expected us to do well, but even I didn’t expect us to beat the GMS 2005 Math Team. The performance of these mathletes really bodes well for our 2021 and 2022 MathCounts teams!”
Background
The GMS virtual math team, formed in the wake of school cancellations at the end of the 19-20 school year, will continue to challenge previous GMS math teams in MathLeague contests. All current GMS and GHS students are welcome to join our virtual math teams!
Data and Sources
Source for school populations: greatschools.org
Source for 2005 MathLeague results: http://old.mathleague.com/reports/2004_05/grade678/OH_7.HTM
Details about MathLeague are available at MathLeague.com.
To partially offset the handicap of lower participation, the GMS 2020 Math Team score was computed by adding the median (average of 2nd and 3rd scorers) as a 5th participant to calculate the total team score.