On a Saturday afternoon Nov. 7, four math teams from four different schools gathered together at one school. Huntley High School. It was the first time HHS ever hosted a math team invite. The three other schools at the event were Hononegah, Jacobs, and Grant.
Huntley placed first overall at the math team invite. This was due to many first placings in different categories. Huntley placed first in the 8-person Pre-Calculus for juniors and seniors, the 2-person team for juniors and seniors, and a couple other categories.
One of those categories was Pre-Calculus Individual. The student who won that category for Huntley was Matthew Cannalte, a senior.
This was not only the first time Huntley hosted a math team invite, it was also the first time Huntley placed higher than Hononegah in a long time.
“We’ve never beaten them before, but we get closer every year to beating them,” said junior William Roller.
Another junior, Shivam Vashi, felt that Huntley did a fantastic job of beating the other schools and placing first.
“It [feels] great because we beat Hononegah by such a tiny amount,” said Vashi.
Hononegah placed second at the invite while Grant placed third. Jacobs placed in a distant fourth with their only win in the Candy Bar competition. The Candy Bar competition is an event where each school is given 20 problems to solve in 20 minutes. Whichever school completes the most questions in the shortest amount of time gets a giant box of candy.
Some students try to be as prepared as possible so they can perform well at these events.
“I look up some math tips beforehand,” said Roller.
Preparedness is not the only key to success for math. A lot of sleep and nutrition is just as important.
“I get a good night sleep and eat a good breakfast in the morning,” said Vashi.
While being prepared and getting a good sleep is helpful, the most crucial thing to have is the brains to do so much math with such difficulty in 3 hours.
The math team does not have another competition for a while, with the next one coming up in January.