The South Carolina All-State Math Team won the southern site award in June, in the 2009 American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) competition—the largest, on-site mathematics face-off in the country, involving students and teachers from almost every state and region. Almost 2,000 students from more than 130 regional and state teams participated in the meet. South Carolina placed 14th overall in Division A, the highest finish the team has ever had. South Carolina’s 15-member team was led by graduating seniors and co-captains Philip Cross, Harry Richman, and Ian Taylor.
Considered the pinnacle of mathematics competitions, the ARML examination is written for high school students, and a few exceptional pupils in middle school. The competition is held simultaneously in several sites internationally, including four in the U.S.: Penn State; the University of Iowa; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and the University of Georgia. The South Carolina teams, generously sponsored by SCCTM, competed at the southern site location at the University of Georgia.
This year, the South Carolina team ― comprised of Math Club members and math whizzes―competed in four areas of competition. Team members of the 14th place A team were: Ravi Bajaj (Wilson), Hardie Cate (A.C. Flora), Elliott Chartock (A.C. Flora), Philip Cross (Dreher), Sage Price (A.C. Flora), Peter Rassolov (Governor’s School for Science and Math), Harry Richman (Spring Valley), Nathan Sitaraman (D.W. Daniel), Sean Soni (Ian Taylor), Heather Sprague (James F. Byrnes), Qianli Sun (Wando), Ian Taylor (A.C. Flora), Andrew Zhang (D.W. Daniel), David Zhang (Academic Magnet), and William Zhang (Academic Magnet). Philip Cross, Peter Rassolov, and Harry Richman tied for top score on the team. Ravi Bajaj and Sage Price tied for the second highest score.
South Carolina also brought a second team. Team member included: Bogdan Bordieanu (Wando), Anne Cai (Porter Gaud), Sona Chowdhary (Wilson), Anurag Deeconda (Spring Valley), Paavan Gami (Southside), Kevin Hoffman (A.C. Flora), Meredith Nix (A.C. Flora), Maria Piroli (A.C. Flora), Eric Powers (Wando), Greg Rassolov (Dent), Kelsey Reamer (A.C. Flora), Matthew Shuler (Hammond), Jessica Sprague (James F. Byrnes), Walker Stinnette (A.C. Flora), and Jessica Wang (James F. Byrnes). Anne Cai and Greg Rassolov tied for top score on the team. In addition alternates Afia Khan (Spring Valley), Justin Moore (Dutch Fork), and Dusty Rivers (A.C. Flora) competed on a team combined with students from other states. Afia Khan was the top scorer on the alternate team.