Mathematician of the Year | SPMS Names Top Math Students

Middle School Honors Math Students during 32nd Annual South Pasadena Middle School Open House Awards ceremony Wednesday night

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | From left, teacher Dean McCoy, top SPMS math students Erika Wang and Jackie Mancera, SPMS Principal Dave Kubela and teacher Eric Aispuro

Outstanding achievements in mathematics were recognized at the 32nd Annual South Pasadena Middle School Open House Awards ceremony on Wednesday night.

Eighth graders Jackie Mancera and Erika Wang were presented as Mathematicians of the Year. Mancera and Wang led the South Pasadena Tiger Cub team in twelve local, state, and national events. Noted physicist, author, and resident of South Pasadena, Dr. Leonard Mlodinow, awarded Mancera and Wang an autographed copy of one of his New York Times best-selling books.

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Top SPMS math students Erika Wang and Jackie Mancera

The Perennial is an online problem solving challenge emanating from Huntsville, Alabama. Led by perfect scores from both Mancera and Wang, the SPMS team ranked among the best in the nation.

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The United States Math Olympiad Committee sent a Commendation of Distinction to 8th graders Andrew Jin and Zack Quezada for ranking in the top 1% in the AMC8 math competition. Erika Wang was presented a Certificate of Achievement for excellence among 8th graders taking the 10th grade exam.

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Principal Dave Kubela congratulates students who were honored Wednesday night at SPMS’s Open House Awards

Math Kangaroo is an international problem solving competition in which nearly 32,000 students across the United States participate. In the 8th grade there were 1573 U.S. students. Jin placed 1st and received the gold medal. Wang ranked 4th. Among 2470 students in the 7th grade, Sequoia Ding placed 8th, Alex Ninomiya ranked 11th, and Rika Kodama-Sekihara was 16th.

Rocket City Math challenges students with three rounds of problem solving. The 7th graders ranked 2nd in the country, and the 8th graders were 7th. Ding, Ninomiya, Yuuto Izumi and Mancera were among the top scoring individuals nationally.

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Students were honored Wednesday night at SPMS’s Open House Awards, including the ‘Mathematician of the Year’

SPMS 7th graders ranked eighth in the state in the California Math League, while the 8th graders were ninth. Seventh graders Ding and Katherine Tam tied for 6th in the state with their outstanding individual scores.

SIGMA is a national math competition headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. More than 6,000 students from 125 middle schools were challenged over a five month period. SPMS 6th graders placed 3rd in the nation, the 7th graders were 3rd, and the 8th graders ranked 3rd in the nation. The combined scores of the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade ranked 2nd in the U.S. Ding placed 3rd in the US individually, Mancera was 7th, Tam ranked 20th, and Wang was 22nd.

Highest Team Achievement awards were presented to the 6th and 8th grade level teams by the MATH OLYMPIAD.

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Students were honored Wednesday night at SPMS’s Open House Awards, including the ‘Mathematician of the Year’

Wang, Hanning Zhu, Ding, and Tam received the Top Team trophy at the annual UCLA GIRLS’ ADVENTURE IN MATH. Wang, Tam, Ding, and Ninomiya placed 2nd in the San Gabriel Valley at the prestigious MATHCOUNTS competition. The 7th grade team of Ding, Tam, Jay Kim, and Ryan Estanislao placed 1st in Southern California in MATHLEAGUE.ORG.

SPMS 6th and 8th graders received Top Team recognition at the 34th Los Angeles County Math Field Day.

PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Students were honored Wednesday night at SPMS’s Open House Awards, including the ‘Mathematician of the Year’
PHOTO: Esteban Lopez | SouthPasadenan.com News | Students were honored Wednesday night at SPMS’s Open House Awards, including the ‘Mathematician of the Year’