The Cotter math team has completed another in a string of successful seasons.

The team’s primary goals were to capture the season trophy for Tier II and to maintain their State meet performance.

Practices started early this year and the season was long, but the team once again qualified for the State Tournament with the guidance of Dr. Eric Errthum and Miss Hohnstadt.

The math team was at the state meet Monday competing for the Tier II (smaller schools) championship. The Ramblers came up short of their goal, but a 3rd place finish is nothing to get down about.

”It was a great season with lots of work and fun. The team was great and I couldn’t have asked for a better season,” said senior Zihua (Mark) Chang.

The math team clinched their state berth by finishing first in the HVL Conference and fifth overall in the state for season points.

On the individual level the members also excelled placing seven out of the top ten scorers in the conference and three individuals in the top 50 scorers in the state.  These three State medalists are Mark Chang, Elaine Tan, and Cloud Hua.

The graduation of last year’s top scorer, Adam Luo – who now attends Vanderbilt University, other members of the team had to step up, like junior Sung-Woo Jang.

 The team gathers together once or twice a week to discuss challenging topics that could come up at different events. Most of the work, however, is done at the individual level by students studying the material. Each of the five meets during the season was held  at Lourdes high school in Rochester. The meet is set up with four different segments called A, B, C, and D. Each of these four segments has four questions within the segment and students are participate as individuals in 2 out of the 4 events. There is another portion of the meet where the team competes together as one trying to solve a puzzling six problems.