EVANSTON — Some students at Evanston’s middle schools really like math. They’re really good at it, too. 

The Evanston Middle School and Davis Middle School Math Counts teams are busy preparing for the Wyoming state competition after having already finished in first and second place, respectively, at the chapter, or regional, competition in early February. 

Math Counts Competition Series is a national program for students in grades six through eight, through which the students compete against those from other schools at regional, state and national levels. The rigorous competitions include multiple timed rounds of difficult problems students solve individually, in pairs or in teams, as well as an oral countdown round for the top-scoring individuals. Some rounds allow the use of calculators while others do not. 

EMS Math Counts coach Crystal Peterson has been working with the Math Counts program for nearly two decades. She said students who participate make quite a big commitment, staying after school twice a week to practice, doing extra math homework and making up missed school work in other classes when the team travels to compete against other schools in the southwest Wyoming region. 

Peterson said the local school district has been very supportive of the program, allowing the students to travel to compete against other teams in the region. While many other schools in Wyoming have Math Counts teams, not all travel to compete regularly and only participate in the chapter and state competitions. Other schools have no Math Counts team at all. 

Evanston teams, on the other hand, have been able to travel to compete multiple times and will be traveling again to participate in the Wolsborn-Drazovich math contest in early March, which not only provides good math practice leading up to the state competition March 9, but also carries multiple scholarship opportunities for the students. 

EMS eighth-grade student Hyrum Baxter has already earned a one-year scholarship to Western Wyoming Community College by finishing as the top individual at the chapter competition. Baxter said participating in Math Counts through middle school has helped with his test scores because he’s had the opportunity to do high-level math. He said it’s also just fun. “I like math because it’s right and wrong and there aren’t so many hypotheticals.” 

Baxter’s teammate Kamrie Frongner agrees. “I just think math is fun,” she said. “It’s fun to learn different ways of solving problems.” 

The two teams will be traveling to the University of Wyoming for the state competition, with eyes on earning a spot in the national competition in Orlando this May, where 224 teams and individuals from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories will be vying for the Math Counts title. The national competition is televised on ESPN, and Baxter, Frongner, their teammates from both schools and coaches Peterson and Donna Carroll from DMS hope they’ll have what it takes to represent Wyoming on the national math stage.