Thomas, Math, and a Tournament

February 22.

We prodded Thomas, just a little, to join Alpha Omega Math Club this past school year.  I don't know that he needed much prodding, though, because he threw himself into the club with all the gusto he could muster.  Once again, he organized one of the most important aspects of the weekly club meeting:  Snacks.  :)

The ICTM regional math tournament was held at North Central College in Naperville on February 22, and Alpha Omega had a pretty good run, winning several awards and earning the privilege of going on to the state tournament on May 3 at the University of Illinois!

Here are some highlights of the regional tournament.

Thomas did some last minute preparations.

When not competing, students gathered at the library for snacks and games.

The team, with Mrs. M, their fearless leader!

Thomas waits for the awards ceremony to begin.

Mrs. M.

Setting out all the ribbons, plaques, and trophies.

When the awards were being announced for Calculator Team, our ears perked up a bit.  Thomas is one of the members of the team, and Mrs. M predicted they'd do well at regionals.  After a few years of awards ceremonies, we were familiar with hearing, "First place for ___ goes to Cornerstone!" 

Cornerstone is the other homeschool math club that competes at regionals; there are several other schools that also compete at our class 1A level.  Cornerstone is a well-established team, and Alpha Omega was an offshoot of that team, which grew to a large number of students.  Since they're well-established, and since they're homeschoolers, they've dominated both the regional tournament and the state tournament at our Class 1A level.  As a relatively young team (less than five years old), Alpha Omega has done a great job making dents in garnering awards all the way up to the state tourney.  We're also a very small team, so it has been very satisfying seeing the students do so well at the tournaments.

Okay, back to the awards ceremony...

Just before the ceremony host announced the winners, he looked down at our team (we were sitting up front just in front of him) and said, "Get ready for this..."  He then announced the second-place winners as Cornerstone.  I thought, "Well, okay."  And didn't think much else.

Then he announced, "And, first place for Calculator Team goes to Alpha Omega!"  WHAT??!!  That was us!  That was Thomas and his team!!  I completely forgot about my camera until he and his teammate Adair were up on stage!  :D

Shaking hands with one of his teammates.

He looks pretty happy.

Wow.  We were so excited!  Now it's on to state, and since the whole team qualified to go, the students have been practicing hard for this major tournament.

Great job, Thomas and the Alpha Omega team!!


Back to life,
Christine

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