Mrs. Katie Flax, Math/Science teacher took ten Western Plains high school students to compete in the Math Relays at Fort Hays State University on Thursday, November 10, 2022. There were 545 individuals and 41 schools in attendance, and the Western Plains students came away with some great honors. Western Plains students competed in a variety of individual and three-person relay team events. Individuals competed in their own grade level, and teams competed at the level of their oldest team member. Students were also penalized for wrong answers, so guessing was not a factor in these events.
Students competed against schools across the state from 1A to 6A. The top ten finishers, which included all participants, despite school classification, in each event were able to score points for their team, which means scoring in the top 10 is a huge honor.
Despite this, Western Plains had 1 individual and 1 team score in the top 10 overall. Lilly Payne placed 5th at the Junior level in Applications of Algebra out of 60 competitors. In the same event, Tate Burrell, freshman, Kali Flax, sophomore, and David Perez, junior, placed 10th out of 18 teams at the Senior level in Applications of Algebra.
Western Plains scored points in these two events, and based on those points, we placed 10th place out of 17 teams in 1A. “I am very proud of our students for this being our first time competing,” said Katie Flax.
A few honorable mentions in the top 20:
Trey Jones in freshman Algebraic Manipulations scored 17th out of 34 students.
Kali Flax in sophomore Geometry scored 15th out of 46 students.
Trey Jones in freshman Calculations with Calculators scored 17th out of 43 students.
Kali Flax in sophomore Calculations with Calculators scored 18th out of 62 students.
Vojtech Tupec in junior Calculations with Calculators scored 18th out of 60 students.
David Perez in senior Calculations with Calculators scored 15th out of 57 students.
Two teams who just missed on scoring point for WP with 11th place rankings were Lilly Payne, Hector Punelle, and Marta Cuesta who placed 11th in junior Geometry, and David Perez, Alessandro Lampis, and Ana Luna who placed 11th in senior Geometry.
The ten high school students who participated in the FHSU Math Relays were:
Trey Jones - freshman
Tate Burrell - freshman
Kali Flax - sophomore
Marta Cuesta - sophomore
Hector Punelle - junior
Lilly Payne - junior
Ana Luna - junior
Alessandro Lampis - junior
Vojtech Tupec - junior
David Perez - junior
