Washington State 6th-Grader and Texas Team Awarded Mathematics Champions at Lockheed...

Fri May 9, 2008 9:47pm EDT

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Washington State 6th-Grader and Texas Team Awarded Mathematics Champions at Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National Competition - 2008

DENVER--(Business Wire)--
Darryl Wu of Bellevue, Washington, answered this challenging math
problem in less than 45 seconds to win the MATHCOUNTS National
Champion title at the Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National Competition
today in Denver at the Denver Marriott Tech Center:

Question: A set of distinct positive integers has a total of 11
digits, and all the digits are 1s. What is the smallest possible sum
of the integers in the set?

Answer: 11,234

The 6th-grader from Lakeside Middle School competed against 227
other middle school students in this prestigious competition, hosted
by Lockheed Martin, a MATHCOUNTS National Sponsor.

Wu was victorious in the intense, one-on-one oral Countdown Round
where the top 12 Mathletes(R) competed for the title of MATHCOUNTS
National Champion. Bobby Shen of Sugarland, Texas, was awarded the
second-place individual title with Anderson Wang of Ambler,
Pennsylvania, and Evan Miller of Owensboro, Kentucky, advancing to the
Semi-finals.

In the team competition, Texas captured the title of National Team
Champions. Team members include Bobby Shen of Sugarland, Kevin Tian of
Austin, Ding Zhou of Houston, Kevin Li of College Station and coach
Jeff Boyd of Sugarland

The Washington team took second place, and the Maryland team
placed third.

"Congratulations to each of these students on their amazing
accomplishments," said Lou Digioia, Executive Director of the
MATHCOUNTS Foundation. "These Mathletes, and all of their counterparts
around the nation, deserve our praise and acknowledgement of their
talent and dedication. MATHCOUNTS is honored to support the efforts of
U.S. middle school students to develop strong mathematical abilities."

Student representatives of all 50 states, the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana
Islands and the Department of Defense and State Department schools
worldwide participated in the Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National
Competition. The top four students in each state competition in March
earned the honor of forming a team and advancing to today's
culmination of the MATHCOUNTS competition.

As National Champion, Darryl Wu won the $8,000 Donald G. Weinert
Scholarship, a trip to U.S. Space Camp and a notebook computer. Bobby
Shen won a $6,000 scholarship as 2nd Place Individual. Semi-finalists
Anderson Wang and Evan Miller each won a $4,000 scholarship, and
Darryl Wu's coach, Lon-Chan Chu, received a notebook computer.

Bobby Shen of Texas won an $8,000 scholarship as the Written Round
Winner and Jason Hyun of Maryland also won a $6,000 scholarship as
Written Round Runner-up.

Additionally, each team member from first-place Texas won a $2,000
scholarship, trips to U.S. Space Camp and a notebook computer.

ABOUT MATHCOUNTS:

-- The mission of MATHCOUNTS is to increase enthusiasm for and
enhance achievement in middle school mathematics throughout
the United States

-- Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, more than 7 million students
have participated in MATHCOUNTS.

-- The program has received two White House citations as an
outstanding private sector initiative and been recognized in
White House ceremonies by four presidents.

-- MATHCOUNTS relies upon a national network of 17,000
volunteers.

A 501(c)(3) organization, funding for MATHCOUNTS comes primarily
from its National Sponsors; Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
Foundation, Raytheon Company, Texas Instruments Incorporated, National
Society of Professional Engineers, 3M Foundation, CNA Foundation,
General Motors Foundation and ConocoPhillips. MATHCOUNTS was founded
by The National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation, and
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Additional information on MATHCOUNTS and the Lockheed Martin
MATHCOUNTS National Competition - 2008 is available at
www.mathcounts.org.

For MATHCOUNTS
Barbara Pflughaupt, 212-707-8181
or
Amy Gorton, 310-749-8345 (cell)