Math Team Clinches Victory in Greater New Haven Region
By Ben Millard ‘10
News Reporter
The Choate Math team ended another excellent season on February 1st with a victory in the Greater New Haven Math League (GNHML). Over the course of six competitions, Choate scored 539 out of 630 possible points to earn the title.
The Math Team faced tougher competition this year than in previous years: Hopkins, Choate’s closest rival in the GNHML, earned 488 points for the season. Mr. David Doster, the coach of the team, stated, “We generally have a stable group; there’s not a lot of difference in Choate’s performance from year to year. Unless Hopkins suddenly attracts a large group of exceptionally talented competitors, Choate will continue to lead the pack.”
Team member Phumpong “Yod” Watanaprakornkul ‘07’s view on the competition was very similar; Yod said, “We didn’t face too much of a challenge.”
Indeed, Choate swept the top three individual scores in the league: Watanaprakornkul earned the highest individual score in the league with 104 points, fellow Thai scholar Sarita “May” Bunsupha ’07 earned 102 to place second, and Jeff Rosen ’07, captain of the team, finished in third. In addition, Yifan Cao ’08 earned the trophy for top junior. May stated, “We did very well; Choate has a great team.”
A central part of the math team’s success is the strong performance of its younger members, who include Adi Rajagopalan ’09, Stephanie Choi ’09, Michael Lai ’09, Rick Bhattacharya ’10, and Andi Wang ’10, about whom Mr. Doster says, “Although she is only taking Honors Geometry, she knows a lot about more advanced mathematical topics, and she solves problems very creatively.” Andi feels a sense of accomplishment for qualifying for the varsity team as a freshman and for placing in the top twenty in the league.
A notable event that occurred this year is that for the first time in the nineteen years that Choate has been keeping records of math competitions, the varsity team scored over 100 points in a single competition. With Rosen, Bunsupha, Cao, Choi, and Rajagopalan leading the way, the team scored 101 points in the third contest. These five members, in addition to Watanaprakornkul, will represent Choate in the Connecticut state championship. The team will finish its season at New Englands in late April.
The math team (above) practices under Doster’s guidance (below).
