The Cotter math team won the Hiawatha Division of the Minnesota Mathematics League at a meet in Rochester on February 8 .

Nine members of the team will represent next state meet on March 14: Sang-Hyuk Lee, Brennan Schaffner, Hyogun Yi, Ruxin Qiaoyang, Bingheng Yang, Hyesu Shin, Seoyoun Oh, Ben Windley-Daoust, and Jin Kyu Kim.

Cotter placed 2nd in teh 2015-16 Tier 2 State meet.  This year’s highest rated team member at the last meet is junior Ruxin (Gloria) Quioyang.

According to the Mnnesota State High School League website: “The Minnesota State High School Mathematics League is a high school mathematics league in the state of Minnesota. It was founded in 1980 by Macalester College professor Wayne Roberts. The league holds five statewide tournaments per year from November through February, as well as a state tournament in March. The problems posed are divided into five events – Individuals A, B, C, and D, and the team event. Events A, B, C, and D usually consist of prealgebra, geometry, trigonometry, and precalculus topics respectively. The team event is a mix of all four. Each team member chooses to compete in two individual events, and all team members compete in the team event. Each high school chooses its eight top members, including at least two freshmen or sophomores, as its “varsity” team. This is the team that actually racks up points in the name of the school; the other students simply compete for themselves. Each individual event contains one one point question and three two point questions, so the maximum a person may score per meet is fourteen points. The team events each contain six questions worth four points each. A team’s score is determined by adding the individual scores of the varsity members and the varsity team score. At the end of the season, the team with the highest score in each conference continues to the state tournament.”

Cotter’s team has three or four practices before the meet, at which they learn about the skills which will be tested at the next meet.

Eric Errthum is the math team coach in Cotter, he is also Winona State math professor. He meets the students after to school for practice.  The team has a history of success since being started by former Cotter teacher Mr. Don Nitti.

The following members of math team are added on the plaque commemorating the victory in the Hiawatha division meet:  Sang-Hyuk Lee, Brennan Schaffner, Hyogun Yi, Ruxin Qiaoyang, Bingheng Yang, Hyesu Shin, Seoyoun Oh, Ben Windley-Daoust, Jin Kyu Kim, Sammy Knight, Alex Walechka, Hyunjin Kim, Mikaela Livingstone, Benjamin Herber, Jake Renk, Harry Alimu, Ngoc Minh Pham, and Wenjie Xu.

“The season is going well” HyeSu Shin (Eileen) said. She is junior and this is her second year in Cotter math team. She also said, “I’m looking forward to learn more math knowledge in the math team.”

TianYue Li (Choco) has only been on the math team for one meet, and she left because of conflict with her winter sport. But she said, “I’m planning on joining it again next year.”

The team is rated #2 in Tier 2 behind St, John’s Prep and hopes to earn its first state title at the Pi day (3/14) meet.