UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING PRESS RELEASE:

Qingfeng Li, a seventh-grade student at Laramie Junior High School, won first place at the recent 2014 Wyoming State Mathcounts competition at the University of Wyoming. Li won the contest last year while competing for Spring Creek Elementary School.

Antonina Klata, a seventh-grader at Rock Springs Junior High School, finished in second place; seventh-grader Emily Zhang of Laramie Junior High School won third place; and Colin Murcray, an eighth-grader at Rock Springs Junior High School, placed fourth.

Laramie Junior High won the team competition, followed by Rock Springs Junior High and Powell Middle School.

Li, Klata, Zhang and Murcray make up this year's Wyoming state team, which will compete at nationals May 9 in Orlando, Fla. This year's head coach is Dennis Rimmasch, a Laramie Junior High School teacher.

Open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students, Mathcounts helps students understand how math is important to solve problems in everyday life, says Jeff Anderson, state Mathcounts coordinator in the UW College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS). He says Mathcounts offers fun and challenging math programs to expand academic and professional opportunities for middle school students of all ability and interest levels.

Read more here.

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