The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS Competition was held on Saturday, Feb. 4, at George Mason University. The regional competition combines the Fairfax, George Washington, and Northern VA Chapters of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers.

More than 420 sixth through eighth grade students from 49 elementary and middle schools competed at the events. These students have been practicing since the fall and were selected to represent their schools at the competition. Students compete as school teams and as individuals.

The top teams, team members, and coaches for each Chapter are as follows:

Fairfax Chapter Area

1. Rachel Carson Middle School (Coach: Kristen Shebek); Students: Andrew Kim, Ankit Roy, Derek Dong, Anirudh Bansal

2. Nysmith School (Coach: JoMarie Broccoli); Students: Whitman Ochiai, Kaien Yang, Anuraag Kaashyap, Anand Advani

3. Joyce Kilmer Middle School (Coach: Lilia Nedialkova); Students: Daniel Zeng, David Han, James Xu, Luke McMahon

George Washington Chapter Area

1. Mark Twain Middle School (Coach: Jack Schiavone); Students: Jeb Cui, Griffin Chozick, Alexander Davis, Eugene Choi

2. South County Middle School (Coach: Gina Griffin-Evans); Students: Eugene Choi, Matthew Hwang, Shreyas Mayya, Shaunak Patel

3. Carl Sandburg Middle School (Coach: Nicole Yoder); Students: Molly Barron, Thomas Cuddy, Quinn Powell, Jillian Ylagan

Northern VA Chapter Area

1. BASIS Independent McLean (Coach: Rikki McCullough); Students: Austin Feng, Pravalika Putalapattu, Ethan Zhou, Joshua Fu

2. Longfellow Middle School (Coach: Jong Hyoun Jung); Students: Lawrence Shi, Austin Shi, Edwin Lu, Daniel Park

3. Haycock Elementary School (Coach: Jin Kang); Students: Sam Wang, Taein Kim, Brian Lai, Alan Vladimiroff

The top-scoring students in each Chapter are as follows:

Fairfax Chapter Area

1. Andrew Kim, Rachel Carson Middle School

2. Ankit Roy, Rachel Carson Middle School

3. Derek Dong, Rachel Carson Middle School

4. Rubaiya Emran, Edlin School

5. Subhiksha Balaji, Rocky Run Middle School

George Washington Chapter Area

1. Eugene Choi, South County Middle School

2. Jeb Cui, Mark Twain Middle School

3. Griffin Chozick, Mark Twain Middle School

4. Mingang Kim, South County Middle School

5. Hieu Vu, Glasgow Middle School

Northern VA Chapter Area

1. Lawrence Shi, Longfellow Middle School

2. Austin Shi, Longfellow Middle School

3. Austin Feng, BASIS Independent McLean

4. Sam Wang, Haycock Elementary School

5. Kevin Zhang, Longfellow Middle School

The top two teams and top four students that are not on the top two teams from the Fairfax Chapter along with the winning team and top two students that are not on the winning team from each of the George Washington and Northern VA Chapters, will advance to compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS Competition to be held on March 18 at the Dominion Virginia Power facility in Glen Allen, Va.

MATHCOUNTS is a national middle school math enrichment program offering competition and club activities designed to foster appreciation of math among U.S. students so as to prepare students for future career opportunities and success. In an increasingly technological society, those students who do not begin developing strong problem solving, logical thinking, and analytical abilities in middle school will face an uphill battle later in life if they wish to pursue a medical, scientific, mathematical, engineering or technical career. More than 6 million students across the U.S. have participated in MATHCOUNTS programs.

Additional information on the national MATHCOUNTS program is available at www.mathcounts.org.