South’s Math Team has been doing very well this year. So far, the team has had five meets. They have not won first place at any meets yet, but according to math team facilitator Don Winnes, they have placed third out of seventeen at every meet. 

The math league averages about 180 schools that participate in the league in 26 divisions. This means over 3,000 students participate per year!  

This information was on the Minnesota Math League website: “Member schools belong to a division of five to ten schools that often are aligned with their athletic conference competitors and are within reasonable geographic proximity to each other to allow for travel to meets.  Each school competes with a team of up to eight students and an unlimited number of individual participants. The schools in each division come together in person for five meets each season. The season runs from early November to early February. Awards are given for top division schools and individuals.”

South’s Math team typically has meetings once a week. “They meet Mondays after school and that usually goes from 3:15 -4:00. “The days we have meets, the meets start at 4:00 at the high school and lasts until 6:00,” said Winnes.

The math team has been at South for a long time. “Math Team has been at South ever since math league has started so, since 1990,” said Winnes.

The team has had impressive attendance numbers this year.  “This year we have about maybe 15-20 members that make it to the meets and practices,” said Winnes.

When asked why he joined the team, Math Team member Gus LaFave said: “My math teacher recommended me to do it and my brother and a couple of people that I knew also did it.” 

When asked who has performed well this year, LaFave had someone in mind.  “Gus Shriver has had a meet where he scored a perfect score, that’s pretty impressive.” 

Mr. Winnes also named students that have done well this year; “Students that have done well this year are Gus Shriver, Maggie Anderson, Fair Lin, and Carl Christianson to name a few.”

Overall, the Math team at South has been very successful this year, and they are hoping to get first place by the end of the season. Since they’ve placed third every time this year, it seems they have a pretty good chance at doing just that.