The Homestead math team brought the heat and the brains to Germantown High School for the North Shore Math Contest this past Monday, Feb. 8, with varsity placing third overall. The competition included four individual tests on algebra, geometry, advanced math and problem solving, as well as one test in which up to eight members of each team participated. The questions on each test ranged from “easy, straightforward problems to ones that require an extension of traditional classroom concepts,” Julian Camacho, freshman math team member, said. The mathletes had 12 minutes to complete each of the individual tests.

Junior varsity participants included Brian Devorkin and Christopher Aceto, juniors, with Aceto placing fifth in JV competition. Varsity participants included Evan Routhier, Megan Ochalek, Marshall Peng, Eddie Cheng and Aaron Holman, seniors, William Clark, Mitchell Larson, Daniel Kim and Yibo Pan, juniors, and Camacho. Clark placed 10th overall, while Camacho, the youngest HHS math team member, tied for second–although he was one question away from first.

Camacho said his success lies in a well-developed strategy of double-checking, and sometimes even triple-checking, his answers. “I am prone to careless mistakes, which forces me to factor this into my problem solving strategy,” he said. “I divided the sheet into two parts and did each problem twice and independently. This way, if the answers were different, I knew that I had made a mistake somewhere, and if the answers were the same, they were very likely correct.”

Holman said the team’s monthly competitions for a Wisconsin-wide contest have been its most prominent preparation for competition. “[The monthly contests] definitely helped us as we competed amongst ourselves while also working together after to figure out any problems we couldn’t complete,” Holman said.

Like other teams at Homestead, the camaraderie of the team accompanies the competitiveness. “Teamwork is extremely important too, as there are several people on the math team who also enjoy math and inspire me to keep improving,” Camacho said. “Mr. Ordinans (math teacher) is obviously a great mentor for the math team, and he keeps the math fun and challenging for everyone.”