Tying with Plainfield North, East’s Mathletes team took first place at the conference tournament hosted at West Aurora on Wednesday, December 8th.
Over the course of the event, competitors competed in four person events split up between grade levels, an eight group event with freshmen and sophomores competing in one event and juniors and seniors competing in the other. There was also an event that had a participant from each grade level.
“As a team, we will break into our different subgroups that are competing in each division,” senior Vivek Parashar said. “Then we work through different problems and collaborate in order to get better in this regard.”
The team met every other Thursday since the start of the school year to build their team comradery and work through practice problems from past year’s competitions to prepare for the looming conference meet.
There was uncertainty as conference drew near as multiple scenarios came up and things started to change.
“We were nervous coming into conference because a couple of our team members were out but it was exciting and surprising when we won,” senior Deepesh Balwani said.
The meet began with a calculator event that involved a student from every grade level. Senior Ipsa Bijumalla was one of two seniors partaking in the event.
“As a team we conquered the competition with our individual strengths and collaborations,” Bijumalla said.
The team then moved into the main chunk of competitions of the night, in which each grade level split up to do problems ranging from Algebra 1 all the way up to Pre-Calculus.
Freshmen Kyler Ponx and Vincent You both partook in the conference meet and were able to bring home 3 different first place awards while working together in a team.
“Vincent and I are good friends and there is a sense of pride when multiple people from the same school can demonstrate accomplishments like this,” Ponx said. “When you hear the same two names called, even though you weren’t working directly together, there is a feeling of teamwork.”
Other second and third place individual finishes were also secured by East’s team over the course of the event.
Though, due to the first place tie, there had to be a coin flip to see who would take home the championship plaque, but nonetheless, OE won that too which brought them home all the hardware they were due to receive.
Team coach and OE math teacher Christine Kill held high praise for her team and their efforts in bringing home said plaque.
“We are so proud of how hard the mathletes worked to have achieved back to back conference championships,” Kill said. “This year, I think they have really enjoyed getting to meet in person and work through the practice problems together, because last year, the remote setting certainly made things more challenging.”
Even with the challenges and uncertainties heading into the event, the first place finish will reign high heading into the new year.
Mathletes will compete next in their regional competition in February with chances to move onto state after that.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Linear Equalities – 1st Place
Kyler Ponx (9th)
Nishka Bijumalla (9th)
Bella Johnson (9th)
Vincent You (9th)
Factoring – 1st Place
Kyler Ponx (9th)
Prabhav Veeramachaneni (9th)
Bella Johnson (9th)
Vincent You (9th)
Freshman Sophomore 8 Person – 1st Place
Omer Syed (10th)
Ahmed Faisal (10th)
Hannah Bolte (10th)
Kyler Ponx (9th)
Prabhav Veeramachaneni (9th)
Bella Johnson (9th)
Vincent You (9th)
Nishka Bijumalla (9th)
Probability – 2nd Place
Snigdha Akula (12th)
Deepesh Balwani (12th)
Vivek Parashar (12th)
Ipsa Bijumalla (12th)
Trigonometry Applications – 3rd Place
Snigdha Akula (12th)
Deepesh Balwani (12th)
Shalin Joshi (12th)
Pranati Mitta (12th)
Calculator Team – 3rd Place
Shalin Joshi (12th)
Ipsa Bijumalla (12th)
Priya Modi (11th)
Omer Syed (10th)
Kyler Ponx (9th)
Log and Exponential – 3rd Place
Saba Ahmed (11th)
Priya Modi (11th)
Jason Gaston (11th)
Ahmed Faisal (11th)
Teddy Wynard is a staff writer for Oswego East High School’s online news magazine the Howl