This year, the High School Math League is undergoing a giant change. Many parts of this year’s competition are different. Not only is the competition changing, but our very own Cannon Falls team has a full team for the first time in a while. For the past few years, Cannon Falls has had seven or fewer participants and a team consisting of up to eight members. So far this year, there are ten members representing Cannon Falls.
In the past, the High School Math League has had four individual events and one team event. Teams were made up of up to eight and you could pick which two of the four individual events you competed in. This year, to ensure ninth and tenth-grade participants can have harder math problems, everyone does all three of the events. In the past, the events were labeled A, B, C, and D. A was the easiest one, B was geometry, C was trigonometry, and D was algebra. Now event A is algebra, event B is geometry, and event C is math analysis. Also, this year the team event went from eight questions to six. Though some people don’t love the new setup, many do. William Zheng, a sophomore in his third year of high school Math League, made sure to explain. “It makes sense because they usually make the more experienced people do the harder topics so new people can get some questions right. The new change allows the more experienced people to be on the same playing field while newer people get a taste of the harder problems.”
This is Dylan Salley’s second year coaching Math League. When asked why he coaches, Salley replied, “I love seeing the students find success and enjoyment with such a challenging and rigorous activity. They are working on some very intense problems and have to find ways to problem-solve and use a culmination of their math skills to be able to answer questions. They enjoy the challenge and the work that it takes to be successful, which truly shows their resiliency and attitude towards math and life in general.”
Of the ten people competing in this year’s Math League, there is one senior, three juniors, three sophomores, and three freshmen. Thomas Coyle is the only Senior; Charles Fick, Calissa Rickert, and Axel Rapp represent the Juniors; Riley Iverson, William Zheng, and Gunnar Maki are the sophomores; and lastly, Amy Fick, Oscar McManus, and Henry Nygaard are the freshmen. Thomas, the oldest on the team said, “I like the changes because it evens out the playing field for the individual competition by evaluating every student on the same material.” This is Thomas’ fifth consecutive year competing in the High School Math League.
Overall many students like these changes and can’t wait to see how this year plays out. With so many changes this year, it’s going to take a little while for everyone to completely adapt. Math League is an important part to some and many do it because they love math and spending time with their team. These changes were said to make it so that younger students can have harder questions. Though this may not have originally started with harder questions, many students say that these new changes have made the High School Math League better.
