Math Fest

Central Catholic hosted over 140 seventh and eighth grade students from fifteen different schools in the greater Portland metro area on Saturday, November 18 for the school’s annual MathFest. Unique among all the local Catholic High Schools, and in its 14th year, the event is a favorite destination for “mathletes” from local Catholic elementary and public middle schools. Students put their best skills on the line as they competed for both prizes and bragging rights in team and individual competitions. 

After a welcome presentation by Central Catholic’s Principal John Garrow, complete with math puns galore, half the students were paired with peers from other schools to combine their talents and math skills in five different “Problem Solving Stations.” These twelve-minute competitions challenged the mixed teams of four to tackle diverse math challenges entitled: Boxes and Locks, Sudoku, SAT Problems, Logic, and Guess My Rule. While the teammates competed against the clock and other teams, the other half of the participants took an individual ConTEST designed to challenge the math acumen of these young people. 

The day concluded with lunch and an awards ceremony, where all the competitors were given commemorative t-shirts and goodies. Trophies were awarded to those 7th and 8th grade teams who managed to outduel their peers in the Problem Solving Stations. The top four, individual ConTEST winners were awarded Central Catholic sweatshirts and the top-scoring 7th grader and 8th grader also earned a $1000 scholarship to Central Catholic.

Deemed “the Best of the ConTEST”, 7th grader Paul de los Reyes of St. Matthew School in Hillsboro and 8th grader Nathaniel Alloway of St. Ignatius in Southeast Portland took home the top prizes. Rounding out the top four ConTEST finishers were 8th graders Rebecca Brotzman of St. John the Apostle, Avery Houle from Cathedral, and Emily Tobias from St. Pius X. Charlie Black and his classmate, Teddy Gehred from Madeleine, as well as Roshan Ramakrishnan of St. Pius X also got the nod as top-performing 7th graders.