• Julian Cavazos •
• Originally published March 4, 2010 at midnight, updated March 4, 2010 at 2:35 p.m.

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• THE ROUNDS IN MATHCOUNTS Sprint Round: the students have 40 minutes to answer 30 questions. Questions are answered individually. No calculators. Target Round: Students individually answer eight problems in four pairs, with six minutes for each pair. Calculators are permitted. Team Round: The team solves 10 problems in 20 minutes Countdown Round: Two contestants compete face to face. Questions are given orally.
  THE ROUNDS IN MATHCOUNTS -2010-03-04 00:00:00

All the numbers seemed to add up well for four Nazareth Academy students.

Earlier this month, the team won the regional MathCounts competition, a nationwide program where middle school students compete in subjects such as calculus, algebra and geometry.

"We jumped up in the air, and were like 'yes, we're going to win as a team,'" said Richard McLeon, a team member.

The students went through four rounds at regionals, with each round getting harder than the last. Some rounds allowed calculators, others didn't.

"We have different strategies of doing the problem, one way or the other," said eighth-grader David Du, team captain, and first place winner in the individual competition. "The team questions were pretty hard."

Now, the team will advance to state on March 26.

Richard has never been to state before.

"This is my first time to ever go to a state competition for anything, so I'm pretty hopeful," the 13-year-old said.

Rose Burkett, the team's coach, teaches a MathCounts course at school, where she trains students who would like to compete in the program.

"My goal is to train my seventh-graders for next year," Burkett said. "I have 18 students. I'm going to be training the others."

The students said MathCounts will help them in their future, especially where math is essential to their job.

"It's required for a lot of jobs," said Jake Smitherman, a team member who advanced to state last year as an individual. "I'm going to be an engineer."

Richard is also eyeing engineering.

"Being an engineer would be fun," he said. "You have to go into fractions like 1/16 of an inch, and do measurements and angles," he said. "For rockets, they have to have angles."

Team member Shelbie Van Beveren, the only girl on the team, also said MathCounts is helpful.

"I want to own my own business," she said.

So far, the team's greatest strength, they said, is working together.

"Our greatest strength is working it out in team round," Richard said. "Jake and David are really smart. David and I work together and Shelby and I work together."

Sometimes the team members disagree on how to come up with an answer, and must arrive at a consensus. They learn to be open- minded.

"It also helps us to see other people's points of view," Richard said. "Usually we'll get the same answer, but we all work it out differently. We'll learn new ways off of each other."

The team will continue to do warm-ups and workouts in preparation for state. With that, Richard hopes a dream he had will come true.

"Saturday, I had a dream that we won state," Richard said. "I was like, 'God, please.'"

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