Lemont’s Mathletes Squad Again Wins Regional, Earns Berth to ICTM State Finals

Lemont High School’s Mathletes squad earned a berth to the 2014 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) State Finals by winning the Joliet area regional competition on Saturday, February 22, at Joliet Junior College. Lemont, which topped second-place Plainfield East by nearly 100 points, will compete in the ICTM Division 3AA State Finals on Saturday, May 3, on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Riding three first-place performances and four runner-up finishes, Lemont finished with a team score of 450 at the Joliet regional, outscoring runner-up Plainfield East (356), Yorkville (342), Providence Catholic (324) and Romeoville (204), which rounded out the top five. Lemont’s regional score ranked 18th among more than 70 Division 3AA teams from throughout the state. Lemont’s team victory earned it an automatic qualification to the ICTM Division 3AA State Finals.

Sophomore Misbah Chagpar and freshman Natasha Joseph led the way for Lemont, as each earned three first-place medals in regional competition. Chagpar finished first individually in the Geometry competition. She also was part of the victorious Geometry Written Team, along with sophomores Spenser Bailey, Matt Filar, Sarah O’Donnell, Jakub Krzeptowski-Mucha and Matt Retzke; and competed on the winning Freshman/Sophomore 8-Person Team with Filar, Joseph, O’Donnell, Retzke, and freshmen Megan Atherton, Faraz Longi and Shannon O’Donnell.

In addition to being part of the winning Freshman/Sophomore 8-Person Team, Joseph also won the Algebra I individual competition, and teamed with Atherton, Longi, Shannon O’Donnell and freshmen Jacob Kecki and James Sliwa to win the Algebra I Written event.

Lemont finished second in four team events as well. Juniors Jacque Desmond, Lauren May, Emma O’Leary, Tyler Schoell, Nick Urban and Dan Wang finished second in the Algebra II Written Team competition; and seniors Jarrod Hanson, Katy Klein, Margaret Rogers and Joe Ziebell and juniors Elly Lambert and Radomir Fugiel teamed for a runner-up placement in the Pre-Calculus Writen Team event.Fugiel, Hanson, Klein, May, Schoell, Urban, Wang and Ziebell comprised the regional’s second-place Junior/Senior 8-Person Team. Chagpar and Filar were a second-place tandem in the Freshman/Sophomore 2-Person Team category.

In other individual competitions, Sliwa (Algebra I), May (Algebra II), Retzke (Geometry) and Hanson (Pre-Calculus) all finished second within their respective categories.Lemont’s Mathletes team is coached by Angela Marshall, Tim Norman and Ken Suslek. It has finished among the state’s top 20 in its division six times in seven years, including 11th-place finishes in 2007 and 2013. Last year, Lemont placed among the top 20 in all 12 state finals categories and was named its division’s most improved team.