Submitted Photo Harvey seventh and eighth grade students traveled to Rugby Junior High School in Rugby to compete in the Math Counts Competition. Students from left to right, first place team, are Carsten Bush, Samuel Hadley (first place individual), Jacob Krenzel (second place individual) and Benjamin Weckerly.

It’s that time of year when seventh and eighth grade students compete against each other in the Math Counts Competition.

Rugby math teacher Daniel Seykora explained what it takes to compete and move on to the next competition.

“Our chapter Math Counts Competition is an annual competition that has been held in Rugby for the past several years. At this time, the competition includes seventh and eighth grade students from Harvey and Rugby. Students are typically chosen based on their math skills and teamwork qualities. None of Rugby’s competitors are returning from last year and they are all eighth graders. I believe Harvey has one returning competitor,” Seykora said.

The competition consists of a sprint round where students work individually on 30 math questions over a 40-minute time period. Then they have four sprint rounds with two questions and a 5- minute time limit in each round, Seykora said.

Lastly, there is a team round where students work with other students from their team/school to answer 10 various questions.

Submitted Photo Rugby seventh and eighth grade team members compete in the Math Counts Competition with Harvey Junior High students in Rugby. From left to right are Finn Bundy, Aydan Henning, Drake Ramsey and Kieran Yoder.

Scores are tabulated and results are shared just minutes after the competition.

Awards are given to the first place team and the first and second place individual. Once scores are reported to the regional representative, state qualification is determined. Often at least one of the teams qualify, but sometimes both teams do based on their team score compared to the rest of the region, according to Seykora.

The state Math Counts Competition will be held in Bismarck on March 23.

Submitted Photo Rugby Junior High students huddled together working on math equations while competing against Harvey Junior High students in Math Counts Competition.

Submitted Photo Students work on math equations during the Math Counts Competition in Rugby.