Reed Junior High Wins Math Contest

For an unprecedented second year in a row, a team of students from Walter Reed Junior High School in North Hollywood has captured the state championship in a national mathematics contest.

Walter Reed beat out teams from other California junior high schools to win the Mathcounts competition held Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

The second consecutive win by the Walter Reed team is a feat unmatched in the daylong contest’s seven-year history.

Coached by teacher William Fitz-Gibbons, the four students on the team were Eric Yeh, Anshul Amar, Daniel Kamins and Daniel Shell. Individual scores by Yeh, Amar and Kamins also ranked in the top 10.

Fitz-Gibbons, who has coached the Walter Reed team since 1985, said the team never has placed lower than fifth in the competition.

Mathcounts is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers to encourage students to study mathematics and become engineers. Individual students are ranked according to their performances in two rounds of written examinations.

Team standings are determined by taking the average of individual scores and adding the result to the outcome of a final round in which the four team members work together to solve a series of problems.

The top four individuals from Saturday’s contest will form the California team, which will compete in national competitions May 18 in Washington. Fitz-Gibbons said this was the first year Walter Reed has not had a student on the California team.