EUGENE–A precalculus student from Oakland High School and a geometry student at Corvallis High School earned top honors at the 21st annual Oregon Invitational Mathematics Tournament hosted by the University of Oregon Department of Mathematics this spring.

Manabu Aoki of Oakland placed first overall to win a $1,000 scholarship and a TI-92 advanced graphing calculator, while Cong Wang of Corvallis received a computing system as the second-place finisher. They were among 242 students representing 76 schools across Oregon who took part in the May 19 contest on the UO campus.

Students were invited to participate in the state tournament based upon their outstanding scores in regional tournaments held in many locations during February, March and April, according to Stuart Thomas, assistant head of the UO mathematics department. They competed at one of six levels: pre-algebra, algebra I, algebra II, geometry, advanced I (precalculus) and advanced II (calculus and above).

"President Dave Frohnmayer welcomed the students and their teachers to campus, and then the students adjourned to their testing rooms where they worked on written exams for the next 90 minutes," Thomas says.

Afterwards, several students presented "chalk talks" in which the students explained some mathematical topic to an audience consisting of their peers and their teachers. UO mathematics faculty and graduate students acted as judges.

At the afternoon awards ceremony, the top two students at each level received special awards of advanced graphing calculators. By category, they included:

Pre-algebra: Ferris Zhang of Beaverton, Meadow Park Middle School, and Dwain DeMaris of Portland, Da Vinci Arts School.

Algebra I: David Visser of Creswell, Marist High School, Eugene, and David Levine of Nehalem, Neah-Kah-Nie Junior/Senior High School, Rockaway Beach.

Geometry: Cong Wang and Nicholas Ahn, both of Corvallis, Corvallis High School.

Algebra II: Wenqi Shao, Roosevelt Middle School, and Michael Davidson, South Eugene High School, both of Eugene.

Advanced I (precalculus): Manabu Aoki of Oakland, Oakland High School, and Mollie Holmes of Salem, Sprague High School.

Advanced II (calculus and above): Theo Johnson-Freyd of Eugene, South Eugene High School, and Dennis Mecham of Roseburg, Roseburg High School.

In addition to these students, eight or nine more of the top students in each level were honored with medallions from the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics. By category, they included:

Pre-algebra: Jon Troyer of Bay City, Neah-Kah-Nie Junior/Senior High School; Michael Fleek of Coquille, Coquille Valley Middle School; Roy Adams of Corvallis, Ashbrook Independent School; Leah Girtz of Enterprise, Wallowa County home school; Josh Lankford of Lexington, Heppner High School; Chelsea Anderson of Nehalem, Neah-Kah-Nie Junior/Senior High School; and John Tan and Aaron Weiss, both of Portland and Meadow Park Middle School.

Algebra I: Keshav Kini of Aloha, Valley Catholic School, Beaverton; Christopher Fallin of Beaverton, Valley Catholic School; Jahnel Madarang of Beaverton, Highland Park Middle School; Katie Shelby of Corvallis, Ashbrook Independent School; Kirsten Aagesen, Tiffany Anderson and Lea Daniels, all of Nehalem and Neah-Kah-Nie Junior/Senior High School; Nicco Tyson of North Bend, North Bend Junior High; and Wes Citti of Marcola, Marist High School, Eugene.

Geometry: Joe Cox of Bay City, Neah-Kah-Nie Junior/Senior High School; Aisaku Pradhan of Beaverton, Highland Park Middle School; Laura Alexander of Corvallis, Corvallis High School; Jillian Sherman of Eugene, Sheldon High School; Darrel Palke of Keizer, McNary High School; Jacob Miller of Oregon City, North Clackamas Christian School; Jon Johnson and Andrew Scorgie, both of Portland and Benson Polytechnic High School; and Luke Marvel of Salem, Sprague High School.

Algebra II: Greg Perryman of Aloha, Valley Catholic School; Eric Edens of Beaverton, Sunset High School; Thai Le of Beaverton, Highland Park Middle School; Aaron Rice of Bend, Mountain View High School; Jacob Eccles of Corvallis, Corvallis High School; Jeff Holman Portland, Sunset High School; Daniel Lin of Portland, Westbridge Academy; Nick Moukhine of Portland, Benson Polytechnic High School, Portland; and Quang Nguyen of Salem, McKay High School, Salem.

Advanced I (precalculus): Brett Peterson of Ashland, Ashland High School; Kevin Kaatz of Bend, Mountain View High School; Makaira Coblentz, Alan Heninger and Michael, Martin, all of Corvallis and Corvallis High School; Jeremy Koons of Eugene, Marist High School; Shadrac Downey of Gladstone, Gladstone High School; Brad Kehr of Klamath Falls, Henley High School; and Timothy Keller of McMinnville, McMinnville High School.

Advanced II (calculus and above): Christopher Eatinger, Chris Haulk and Galen Loram, all of Ashland and Ashland High School; Connelly Barnes of Corvallis, Corvallis High School; Michael Cloughesy of Eugene, Marist High School; Christian Fastenrath of Island City, Imbler High School; John Schiavone of Medford, St. Mary’s School; and Michael Crocker of Salem, Blanchet School.

The students who presented chalk talks were given books on various areas of mathematics. They included Grace Wang of Astoria, Astoria High School; Cong Wang of Corvallis, Corvallis High School; Theo Johnson-Freyd of Eugene, South Eugene High School; Bryan Jensen of Medford, North Medford High School, and Bethany Andres-Beck of Medford, St. Mary’s High School; and Joseph Lee, Dennis Mecham and Rose Wieland, all of Roseburg and Roseburg High School.

Virtual Office Systems of Eugene, Advanced Micro Devices of Portland, Texas Instruments and the UO Department of Mathematics donated the prizes awarded to the winners at this year’s math tournament.

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