Mathcounts competition draws 250 students to WSCC campus: 8 from Onekama Middle School!

by Ken Grabowski, Manistee News Advocate

SCOTTVILLE — The West Shore Community College gymnasium was filled with young, energetic faces on Wednesday ready to compete in the Mathcounts competition.

For the past 29 years this competition has pitted some of the best young middle school minds from the college district in a competition that challenges their math skills. The annual event is sponsored by engineers of Manistee and Mason counties and runs in conjunction with Mason-Lake, Oceana and Manistee intermediate school districts.

“There are over 250 kids who registered for the competition today,” said Mason-Lake, Oceania ISD’s Kathy Surd. “They came from four different counties including Manistee, Mason, Oceana and Lake.”

Students from Manistee Area Public, Manistee Catholic, Bear Lake, Ludington, Ludington Catholic, Covenant Christian, Oceana Christian, Mason County Central, Mason County Eastern, Hart Pentwater, Baldwin, New Era Christian, Walkerville and Shelby.”

Surd said all of those students get to participate in three rounds during the competition. When they complete those rounds the top 10 students on the day move on to the final round.

“All the kids take part in those first three rounds of math problems that consist of a sprint round, a target round and team round,” said Surd. “The final round is the countdown that takes place in a break-out session away from the rest of the students.”

Surd said that the event wouldn’t be possible without the generous cooperation from the local engineers from this area. She said they essentially handle the entire testing process.