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William Ellis Middle School’s MathCounts team placed second in the recent regional MathCounts competition.

Approximately 150 of the top middle school students from several counties in northwest North Carolina competed in the annual event at Wake Forest University.

The team’s performance qualified it for the state competition at the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham.

William Ellis had 10 students. Jonathan Hanes, Zach Hirata, Olivia Rareshide, and Carden Stroud competed as the school team and as individuals, while William Hendrix, Livi Howard, Nirat Patel, Ian Rareshide, Val Ricketts and Arjey Teper competed as individuals.

In the individual results, Olivia Rareshide placed 9th, Stroud 10th, Hirata 11th, Hanes 18th, Teper 24th, Ricketts 31st, and Ian Rareshide 36th.

The team, coached by William Ellis math teacher Steve Rareshide, began practicing weekly after school in October, and several times weekly in January and February.

MathCounts is a nationwide program designed to improve mathematical problem solving skills among middle school students, who are at a crucial stage in developing and sustaining math interest and ability.

As one of the longest-running STEM programs for middle school students in the nation, MathCounts encourages student interest in mathematics through written and oral challenges. Topics include algebra, geometry, number theory, patterns, and probability.

In North Carolina, MathCounts is sponsored by the Professional Engineers of N.C., which organizes the event for public and private middle schools. The top teams from the regional events advance to the state competition, and the state winners participate in the national finals.

A sample problem from this year’s contest: “Let x, y and z be positive integers with x < y < z. If the mean of x, y and z is 99, what is the greatest possible value of z?”

Answer: 294.