After hours of practice, Math Team’s efforts pay off as two members advance to the State competition. Senior Dante Komator won third place in the sectional precalculus competition and sophomore Allyson Evangelista won fifth place in the Sectional geometry competition; both will continue to the State competition on May 4.

“Preparing for State isn’t really different than preparing for a test,” Evangelista said. “Frequent reviews of old notes and visits to Khan Academy work best for me in terms of preparation, so it’s been my go-to lately.”

This is Komator’s second time competing at the State level. Two years ago he proceeded to State after placing at the Regional individual geometry competition. According to Komator, Math Team has taught him a few valuable skills over the course of his high school career.

“The most valuable skill Math Team has taught me is creative problem solving because I commonly have to think outside of the box to figure out how to solve more complex problems that I may not have learned about previously,” Komator said. “If anything, since Math Team has helped improve my critical problem-solving skills. It will probably help me in college as I take increasingly more difficult classes, especially various math classes.”

According to Evangelista, her experience on the Math Team will help her in the pursuit of her future career.

“For my future career, I plan on going into the medical field, so any endeavors with numbers will help my performance. It’s especially helpful since I plan on going into medicine and will have to decide dosages for patients.”

Because DeGroh can not prepare students for every possible math problem they might encounter, he seeks to teach students broader skills that can help them in the array of situations they encounter inside and outside of competitions.

“Math Team teaches students to be independent learners,” DeGroh said. “I can’t help all of them with their competitions they have to think outside the box and try to find solutions that they were not necessarily taught in math class.”