Lincoln Middle School wins 8th state MATHCOUNTS championship; two students qualify for national competition

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

ORLANDO, Fla. – For the seventh time in eight years and the 8th time overall, a team from Lincoln Middle School has won the Florida MATHCOUNTS championship, with two students earning spots on the state team.

The competition for middle school students, sponsored by the Florida Engineering Foundation, was held in Orlando this past weekend. The Lincoln team is coached by Jennifer Frazer, who also works as a counselor at Buchholz High School. Also competing at the state contest were teams from Howard Bishop and Kanapaha middle schools

The school’s championship team included 8th-graders George Paret, Daniel Wei, and Ben Chronley and 7th-grader Edwin Gao. Sixth-grader Jason Zhang was the team alternate. The team took top honors by earning the highest number of points based on the members’ performance in both individual and team events. Zhang also won the state competition for alternates.

Paret, Wei, Chronley, and Gao all make it to the competition’s Countdown round, meaning they were among the top ten students overall. This was only the second time that all four of Lincoln’s team members made it to the Countdown. Paret won 2nd place overall, Wei took 4th place, Gao took 7th place, and Chronley finished in 9th place. 

By finishing in the top four, Paret and Wei have earned spots on the four-person Florida MATHCOUNTS team, which will represent the state in the national competition in Washington, D.C. in mid-May. 

The team also won the ciphering competition, in which a problem is shown on a screen and students have to respond within 45 seconds.

Four other students were among the top 50 finishers at the state competition. They include Andrew Xu (18th) and Jessie Deng (50th) from Lincoln, Harshitha Guruprasad (32nd) from Howard Bishop, and Mario Duron (39th) from Kanapaha.

  • Great! None of these ‘super kids’ lives anywhere near Lincoln Estates or Duval. They have been imported to the school to boost the school’s overall grade.

    • You may be right but if the kids went to any of the schools in alachua county they would be recognized for their accomplishments. I glad to see some of the kids are achieving goals and being recognized within this somewhat backwards public system.

      • Great point Bear, it’s called great parenting. With goals and discipline in the home. It can happen anywhere and with anyone if the kids learn from responsible adults.

    • Magnet programs are (were) an agreement to pull student enrollment away from overcrowded schools to those that were underenrolled by voluntary means rather than forced rezoning. Gainesville students seeking rigorous academics bend over backwards to find and keep it in the public school system. These kids get up 2 hours early to practice before school at the high school, then ride an hour on the bus to their middle school. They practice nights and weekends. They are from all over town with the singular goal of conquering extremely difficult math and open to any student who can do the work. When they find peers and teachers who challenge them, I don’t understand why the reaction is to refer to their team as being imported for some nefarious purpose rather than praise for their tremendous efforts at whichever school has the space and inclination to allow them to meet and study. Not every member of the Gator football team is from Florida either. Great job guys for all your hard work to get you here!

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