Two teams of four students from Bishop O’Connell traveled to the University of Mary Washington over the weekend to participate in a calculus tournament. They tested their math skills by competing as teams and as individuals against other high school students from across Virginia. This is the first year that Bishop O'Connell has competed at this event.
Team #1 Takes Second Place
The team competition included 12 teams from eight schools. It was conducted as a round-robin Jeopardy format, with questions that fell into four categories: Limits, Derivatives, Integrals and Grab Bag. Both O'Connell teams earned ten out of a possible 12 points in this first round to move on to the quarterfinals. In the end, O’Connell’s Team #1 (seniors Srijan Bhasin, Matthew Funkhouser and Zhen (Pearl) Luan, and junior Eunsol Kim) advanced to the finals, and finished second overall. O’Connell’s Team #2 (seniors Matthew Wisniewski and Jennifer Ternullo and juniors Yifan Shi and Jiakun Lin) finished in the top six.
O'Connell Seniors Take 1st and 2nd in Individual Competition
In the individual competition, the 48 competitors were given 30 minutes to answer 10 questions. O’Connell seniors Matthew Funkhouser and Srijan Bhasin claimed the top two spots, answering all ten questions correctly. Funkhouser edged out Bhasin for first place by finishing in the shortest amount of time.
“The competition was intense,” said Michael Bernhard, mathematics chair at Bishop O’Connell. “Our students were great ambassadors for our school and I could not be more proud of them. I am thankful to the University of Mary Washington for sponsoring this annual event which fosters a love for mathematics through healthycompetition."
Pictured below: Top row (l to r) - Zhen (Pearl) Luan, Srijan Bhasin, Matthew Funkhouser and Eunsol Kim. Bottom row (l to r) - Yifan Shi, Jiakun Lin, Jennifer Ternullo and Matthew Wisniewski.
