Richland One Students Win Big at National Math Competition

South Carolina’s All-State Math team, which is coached by A.C. Flora High School teacher Patrick Rybarczyk, won the American Regions Math League national championship held June 2 at Penn State University.

Members of the South Carolina team, who nicknamed themselves The Doom, defeated more than 70 teams in their division including some international competitors from Canada, Colombia and Turkey. Members of the All-State team are top math students from middle and high schools from across South Carolina. Nine of the team members are from Richland One schools.

Richland One extends its congratulations to the entire All-State Math team including the following students from our district:

* Ian Taylor, an A.C. Flora student, tied for top individual score in the country.
* Jim Manning, a 2006 A.C. Flora graduate, achieved the second highest individual score in the nation.
* Other team members included Dreher students Philip Cross, Noah Fram and Aaron Markham, as well as Flora students Sean Soni, Katie Steddenbenz and Meredith Nix.
* Sage Price of Crayton Middle School served as an alternate and scored the highest individual score for his team.

Over the past year, South Carolina’s team put in a lot of hard work with practice sessions during the summer, weekends, and weekdays, including a math camp at USC where they practiced solving problems for eight hours a day! The team even worked math problems during the 14-hour ride from Columbia to Penn State for the American Regions competition.

“I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments of all of the team members,” said head coach Patrick Rybarczyk. “The hours spent getting the team together, organizing the trip and practices, working through thousands of problems and coaching the students have produced the big win and confirmed my belief that we, in South Carolina, have talented students who will rise to the challenge when given the encouragement and opportunity.”

Rybarczyk also praised the parents, assistant coaches, and all of the South Carolina schools who supported the team. In particular, he noted the invaluable assistance provided by the South Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which started the All-State Math Team.

The annual American Regions Math League contest is the nation’s premiere math competition which pits our country’s best and brightest math students against each other as well as against those from around the world.

For more information, contact the Richland One Office of Communications at 231-7510 or 231-7504.