Nearly 200 students from 22 middle, intermediate, and junior high schools in three counties competed in the 42nd annual Lehigh Valley MATHCOUNTS® on Saturday, February 8. The 2025 event was held at Eyer Middle School in Macungie.
During the annual MATHCOUNTS® competition, students work individually on written tests and the top ten scoring students faced off in the Countdown Round, a “Jeopardy” style oral competition. There is also a team round where four students work together to solve 10 problems in 20 minutes. The Top 10 students selected for the countdown round were: Helen Si (Springhouse Middle School), Jackson Andrioli (East Hills Middle School), Silas DeCamp (Easton Area Middle School), Aanya Agrawal (Southern Lehigh Middle School), Vihaan Ro (Springhouse Middle School), Andy Xie (Southern Lehigh Middle School), Wesley Luo (Springhouse Middle School), Caleb Yu (Eyer Middle School), Aryash Shyam (Lehigh Valley Academy Regional School) and Max Yang (Springhouse Middle School). Wesley Luo from Springhouse Middle School answered the final three questions correctly in the last round and was recognized as the MATHCOUNTS® regional champion. Read more about the Lehigh Valley competition from the East Penn Press.
Organized by the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the PA Society of Professional Engineers for students in Lehigh, Northampton, and Monroe Counties, the event was one of about 20 competitions across Pennsylvania. Regional winners advance to the state competition on March 22 in Harrisburg. The National MATHCOUNTS® Competition will take place in Washington, DC on May 11 – 12, 2025 with Raytheon Corporation as the title sponsor. Nationwide, approximately 30,000 students, representing more than 5,500 schools, will participate in the 2025 MATHCOUNTS® Competition. Students and coaches devote many after school hours to prepare for what some have called the “Olympics of Math.”
Prizes at the Lehigh Valley competition included scholarships for math and/or science courses at Cedar Crest College, Moravian University, Lafayette College, Lehigh Carbon Community College, and Northampton Community College.
Lehigh County schools that participated in this year’s event were: Eyer Middle School; Lower Macungie Middle School; St. Thomas More School; Southern Lehigh Middle School; Springhouse Middle School; The Swain School; and Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School.
Schools from Northampton County were: East Hills Middle School; Easton Area Middle School; Nitschmann Middle School; Our Lady of Perpetual Help School; Moravian Academy Middle School; St. Jane Frances De Chantal School; St. John Chrysostom Academy; and Saucon Valley Middle School.
Monroe County schools were: Clear Run Intermediate School; Pocono Mountain East Junior High School; Pocono Mountain West Junior High School; Swiftwater Intermediate School; and Tobyhanna Elementary Center.
Additionally, there were non-school competitors from Nazareth Area Middle School and Notre Dame Elementary School.
MATHCOUNTS®, established in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and CNA Insurance, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that promotes math enrichment, coaching, and a competition program. The program is available to every U.S. state and territory with the objective of providing today’s students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics careers.
The Isett team is integral in making sure this event happens each year. In particular for 2025, a special recognition goes out to the following individuals who volunteered their time to make the event a success: Tracy Torres, Vicki E. Adams, Chris Williams, Charley Myers, Andrea Martin, Sara Aldarondo, Stan Wojciechowski, Gina Bongiovanni, Angie Heiland, Cody McCuean, James Kugel, Ty Cunningham, Brandon Trate, Chad Tyrell, and Kevin Campbell.