Minnesota State High School Mathematics League

The Minnesota State High School Mathematics League is the premier high school mathematics league in the state of Minnesota. It was founded in 1980 by Macalester College professor Wayne Roberts. The league holds five statewide tournaments per year from November through February, as well as a state tournament in March.

Questions

The problems posed are divided into five events - Individual events A, B, C, and D, and the team event. Events A, B, C, and D usually consist of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and precalculus topics, respectively. The team event is a mix of all four.[1]

Scoring

Each competitor chooses to compete in two individual events. Each high school chooses its eight top members, including at least two students below the eleventh grade, as its "varsity" team, which actually earns points in the name of the school and competes together in the team event; the other students simply compete for themselves in whichever two individual events they choose. Each individual event contains one one point question and three two point questions, so the maximum a person may score per meet is fourteen points. The team events each contain six questions worth four points each. A team's total score is determined by adding the individual scores of the varsity members and the varsity team score. At the end of the season, the teams with the highest scores in the state continue to the state tournament.[1]

State Tournament

The state tournaments have been held at South St. Paul High School since 2008. Before that, state tournaments were usually held at Eagan High School. The state tournament begins with the Invitational event. The Invitational is a 30-minute-long test taken by the top 50 students in the season. This is followed by the Math Bowl and an awards ceremony. The Math Bowl brings together the top 10 scorers from the Invitational, and they compete on stage by solving ten problems one at a time within a limited amount of time. Later during the day, there is a meet that is structured like the other meets during the year. The only exception is that there are 15 minutes for an individual event and 30 minutes for a team event. The tournament concludes with a banquet in the evening and a second award ceremony.

Winners

The League officially recognizes individual and team winners of two types each season, one with the highest overall season score, and one with the highest state tournament score. Since the 1988-1989 season, the League has recognized an additional Class A state tournament winner. In 2004-2005, this designation was changed to Tier 2 rather than Class A, with larger schools designated as Tier 1.[2]

Thirteen students have achieved perfect scores of 70 points in the regular season: Erik Vee in 1991-1992, Derek Farmer in 1993-1994, Michael Korn in 1995-1996, Andrew Gacek, Nate Sheetz, and Sam Lindsay-Levine in 1999-2000, Dan Baker in 2002-2003, Ning Zhou in 2003-2004, Nick Arnosti in 2006-2007, Shui Hu in 2007-2008, Rohit Agrawal and Gaurav Singh in both 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, and Abram Sanderson in 2012-2013. Perfect scores on the state tournament are more common, but only Rohit Agrawal (2009-2010) has achieved perfect scores in the regular season and tournament in the same year.

Year Individual Team
Season Tournament Season Tournament (Tier 1/Overall) Tournament (Tier 2/Class A)
2013-2014 Henry Wang Michael Tang Wayzata High School Edina High School Shattuck-St. Mary's School
2012-2013 Abram Sanderson[3] Ian McMeeking, Andy Ylitalo, Roy Zhao Wayzata High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2011-2012 Abram Sanderson Roy Zhao Wayzata High School Wayzata High School Cotter High School
2010-2011 Rohit Agrawal,[3] Gaurav Singh[3] Rohit Agrawal, Gaurav Singh Wayzata High School Wayzata High School Cotter High School
2009-2010 Rohit Agrawal,[3] Gaurav Singh[3] Rohit Agrawal Wayzata High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2008-2009 Rohit Agrawal Martin Camacho Wayzata High School Wayzata High School Cotter High School
2007-2008 Shui Hu[3] Shui Hu Wayzata High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2006-2007 Nick Arnosti[3] Rohan Agrawal, Shui Hu St. Paul Central High School St. Paul Central High School The Marshall School
2005-2006 Rohan Agrawal, Shui Hu Rohan Agrawal Mounds View High School Mounds View High School
2004-2005 Silas Johnson Daniel Gibson Wayzata High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2003-2004 Ning Zhou[3] Ning Zhou Wayzata High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2002-2003 Dan Baker[3] Daniel Herriges Highland Park High School Wayzata High School St. Paul Academy
2001-2002 Pavel Batrachenko Matt Thibault Highland Park High School Highland Park High School The Marshall School
2000-2001 Matt Thibault Michel D'sa Mounds View High School St. Paul Central High School The Marshall School
1999-2000 Andrew Gacek, Sam Lindsay-Levine, Nate Sheetz[3] Sam Lindsay-Levine Mounds View High School Mounds View High School Benilde-St. Margaret's
1998-1999 Andy Niedermaier Jon Moon St. Paul Central High School St. Paul Academy Benilde-St. Margaret's
1997-1998 Dave Freeman Dave Freeman St. Paul Central High School Irondale High School Benilde-St. Margaret's
1996-1997 Jin Wang Bill Owens St. Paul Central High School St. Paul Central High School The Blake School
1995-1996 Michael Korn[3] Michael Korn Mounds View High School Wayzata High School The Blake School
1994-1995 Michael Korn Michael Korn Mounds View High School Mounds View High School St. Paul Academy
1993-1994 Derek Farmer[3] Matt Koetz Irondale High School St. Paul Academy The Blake School
1992-1993 Mary Hu Tom Wieand Bloomington Jefferson High School Bloomington Jefferson High School The Blake School
1991-1992 Erik Vee[3] Kuan Chen Wu Hibbing High School St. Paul Academy Moose Lake High School
1990-1991 Ron Dror Ron Dror Spring Lake Park High School Columbia Heights High School St. Anthony Village High School
1989-1990 Matt Kelly Matt Kelly The Blake School Mounds View High School St. Anthony Village High School
1988-1989 Steve Walther Tom Monikowski Columbia Heights High School Owatonna High School St. Paul Academy
Year Season Tournament Season Tournament
1987-1988 Josh Brandon Jim Mashek Minneapolis South High School Highland Park High School
1986-1987 Steve Kuhn Peter Bermann Saint Louis Park High School Saint Louis Park High School
1985-1986 Hieu Nguyen Tom Chung Apple Valley High School
1984-1985 Paul Ohman Tom Chung Saint Louis Park High School St. Paul Academy
1983-1984 Mike Pavloff Minneapolis South High School
1982-1983 Bob Fink Hibbing High School
Year Twin City Division Iron Range Division Twin City Division Iron Range Division
1981-1982 Son Nguyen Joe Baraga Highland Park High School Hibbing High School
1980-1981 Erik Riddle Como Park Senior High School

Other League-Sponsored Activities

The Minnesota State High School Mathematics League sponsors the Minnesota All-State Mathematics Team, which competes at ARML (a national math tournament) annually. Selection is based on MSHSML season and state tournament scores and American Mathematics Competitions scores. [4]

The team was founded in 1987. Since then, the Gold team has finished in the top ten at ARML in division A 12 times, winning the national championship in 1997. The Maroon team has finished in the top ten in division B 8 times, and won division B in 1993. [5]

The All-State team also sends 16 students (2 teams) annually to the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Minnesota State High School Math League Coach's Manual 2006 – 2007" (PDF). Minnesota State High School Math League. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
  2. 1980-2005 data from Roberts, A. Wayne (2005). Minnesota Math League XXV. Beaver's Pond Press. ISBN 1-59298-111-9.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Perfect season score
  4. http://mnmathleague.org/?page_id=53
  5. https://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/Minnesota_ARML

External links