SCH Team Caps of Season with Philadelphia Fall Math League Finale

The SCH math team capped off a great fall season with a strong performance at last week’s Math Olympiad, the Philadelphia math league’s culminating, in-person fall event, hosted by SCH in the Vare Field House. The competition brought 16 schools from across the region together to battle it out in the Vare Field House, armed with TI-nSpire CAS CX II handheld calculators, whiteboards, and keen math minds.

To hone their skills, the Mathletes, composed of a dozen Upper School students and 10 intrepid Middle Schoolers and coached by Derrick Keister and John Silbaugh, compete virtually once a week during lunch from September through November. Throughout the season, our Upper and Middle School students scored 207 points—the second-highest in the league—demonstrating their skill, dedication, and teamwork.

The day featured five rounds of competition, combining individual and team challenges, with scores from the virtual season determining the tournament brackets. SCH got off to a strong start, winning the first round in dramatic fashion against Masterman with a perfect 6/6 score—clinched in a buzzer-beater, one-second tie-breaker! The team finished the day with a 2-2 record, securing 8th place overall. That solid finish placed SCH ahead of several top schools, including Friends Central, Penn Charter, Agnes Irwin, Masterman, AFS, and Shipley.

In addition to the official tournament, students also enjoyed a 24-game lunchtime tournament, which was a huge hit and may have started a new Math Olympiad tradition. 

Congratulations to all the team members for a fantastic season and a memorable finale! Those competing in the Olympiad event were (clockwise from head of the table): Damian Melzer-Surkan, Aaron Jia, Reed Knoblock, Eloise Levin, Ariya Goswami (student leader), Lauren Wilson, Ian Kim, and Judah Meyer.