Sycamore Canyon Middle School students, lead by math teacher Malinda Young, represented their school in the MathCounts Ventura-Santa Barbara Chapter competition in February. The Sycamore Canyon team placed second and qualified to represent the school at the state level later in Irvine.

MathCounts is one of the largest national mathematics competitions for middle school students which draws approximately 40,000 students each year from all 50 states and U.S. territories.

The team members are sixthgrader Jessica Han, eighth-grader Norman Mu, eighth-grader Ashley Reddy, seventh-grader Kevin Shen, eighth-grader Austin Shi, seventh-grader Andy Wang, seventh-grader Dan Zeng and seventh-grader Eric Zhou, and the alternates eighth-grader Lauren Heller and sixth-grader Taylor Wang.

Norman Mu placed ninth in the individual category among about 150 students and qualified to participate in the final buzz round of the competition, where he placed fourth overall.

This is the school’s sixth year participating in the MathCounts program. Out of the 200 students at the chapter competition in Ventura, four out of the eight students from Sycamore Canyon placed in the top 30.

The MathCounts program is coached by teachers Malinda Young and Jack Willebrands and former contestant Joyce Shi.