Scarsdale Students Among Nation's Best 'Mathletes'

Two Scarsdale students, 8th grader Richard Xu and 6th grader Eric Wei, were among the participants in the recent National Mathcounts Competition held at Disney World in Florida.

Above is an ABCNews report on the event, and the following is an account from Scarsdale teacher Steve Weiss, who coached the New York students to fourth place which ties the state's best-ever finish:

My team and I attended the National Mathcounts Competition this past weekend at the Swan hotel in Dinsey World.  I brought 4 students from NY State to compete against 56 teams, representing 50 states plus DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, The State Department and The Department of Defense.  

The NY team consisted of two Scarsdale students, 8th grader Richard Xu and 6th grader Eric Wei, as well as two students from the Rochester area.  These students qualified after their top performance at the NY State competition.  Since Scarsdale came in first place at the State competition, I am the coach of the state team.  NY came in 4th place which is equal to the best showing by NY ever.  

The students were treated as VIPs the entire 4-day trip including Disney park passes and a private event in Epcot. Part of the competition was webcast live on ESPN.com and the event was covered by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.  Many top executives from the major sponsors were there, including Raytheon, the major sponsor.  Mathcounts and their sponsors encourages STEM (science, math, engineering and math) education and career paths for our young people.