Hawai'i 'mathletes' head for national competition

Advertiser Staff

Four Hawai'i youths are headed to Washington, D.C., to compete Friday against the best seventh- and eighth-grade math students in the country.

Kristen Bautista of Waiakea Intermediate School, Yohsuke Miyamoto of Punahou School, and Melanie Bomke and Nolan Chung of 'Iolani School are the top state "mathletes." They will represent Hawai'i in the national MathCounts finals.

They are coached by Evelyn Cheong of Punahou.

The top three national winners will get scholarships ranging from $4,000 to $8,000 from the General Motors Foundation. The top winner also will get an expense-paid trip to the U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., as will the top-scoring state team.

The coaches of the top mathletes will get a trip to a NASA space facility, compliments of NASA.

The state winners were chosen from students who competed March 10 at Kamehameha School. Competitions were also held at the regional level. This year, about 330 Hawai'i students entered the program, which includes intensive coaching in probability, statistics, linear algebra and polynomials.

MathCounts is sponsored in Hawai'i by the Hawai'i Society of Professional Engineers, Hawaiian Electric Co. and Aloha Airlines.