The Center for Teaching and Learning took the Alpha Chapter Mathcounts competition on January 25 at Kennebec Valley Community College.

Eighth graders Teddy Matel of Round Pond, Sophia Stafford of Alna, Nicholas Miaoulis of Newcastle and Parker Elkins of Edgecomb, CTL’s official team of four, aced the team round, took the prize for first place team and displayed impressive camaraderie, cooperation and knowledge.

Since each school is only allowed to enter one team, CTL students also formed two “unofficial” teams; one of these, comprised of eighth graders Amelia Genus of Edgecomb, Teagan Guenther of Bath, Noah Jordan of Alna, and Charlotte Collins of Woolwich, placed first in the unofficial team category.

In addition, three CTL students placed in the top 10 Countdown Round, which is similar to a Jeopardy game competition, with individual participants, quick questions and buzzers. Amelia Genus came in fourth, Teddy Matel sixth and Parker Elkins ultimately fought his way from eighth to third. Seventh grader Jacob Stafford of Alna placed 16th among the top 20 individual scorers, and classmate Nicholas took 17th.

CTL is consistently among the smallest schools participating in local Mathcounts competitions, yet has achieved increasingly excellent results due to the students’ passion for the subject, hard work and strong math program. The next step for CTL’s mathletes is the state competition, where they’ll again be coached by parent Patrick Sanborn and Katie Rittershaus, teacher of grades 7-8 math.