The Varsity Math Team competed in the annual North Shore Math Contest on Monday, Feb.12.  Homestead defended its title by winning the contest with a substantial 51 points over the second place team.

While varsity and JV teams typically have eight people on each team compete, Homestead had a full varsity squad with Katie McCarthy, senior, and Shir Bloch, junior, as varsity alternates.

“I joined math team my freshman year because I find math fun and it is not a huge time commitment. I was on math team sophomore year as well, but not my junior year. Being an alternate this year, I can’t take any credit for the success of the team, except for encouraging them,” McCarthy said.

The competition began with each of the eight teams in the contest taking four individual tests: Algebra, Geometry, Problem Solving and Advanced Maths. Five members of Homestead’s team medaled for their individual tests in the top ten contest.

“I didn’t really know what the contest was going in because I didn’t do it last year, but it was a nice surprise winning as a team and placing individually. I definitely wouldn’t have done as well without the rest of my team,” Max Kroft, senior, said.

After the individual tests were taken, the team portion of the competition began where each of the eight teams had 30 minutes to answer six questions with their teammates.

“The questions are designed to take awhile to solve, so you really need to work as a team,” McCarthy said.

The overall score for each team is calculated as a cumulative score of each team member’s individual test score and the collaborative team portion score. Homestead had seven individuals in the top 14 of the 67 contestants and Andrew Wang, sophomore, was the overall winner of the contest.

“It felt great to win and our team was really excited about our accomplishments,” Wang said.