Submitted photo St. Paul’s Lutheran Elementary School took first place at the 3M MathCounts meet Thursday in New Ulm. Eleven schools from the area took place in the meet. Left to right, St. Paul’s official team members Bethany Spike, Isaiah Carlovsky, Isaiah Rogotzke and Gavin Schaefer and head coach James Carlovsky.

NEW ULM — Young mathletes squared off at the 3M MathCounts meet Thursday at Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Leifeld Hall.

St. Paul’s Lutheran Elementary reigns as this year’s first-place winner, with a score of 34.75 points. The second-place team was St. Peter Lutheran School, with 26.75. The scores are averages of points earned by team members in sprint, target and team rounds.

St. Paul’s team members were Isaiah Carlovsky, Isaiah Rogotzke, Gavin Schaefer and Bethany Spike. The team’s coaches are James Carlovsky and Aaron Spike.

Individually, Isaiah Carlovsky took first place with 41 points, Isaiah Rogotzke took second with 35 points, Gavin Schaefer took fourth with 32 points, and Bethany Spike finished in the top 10.

In a separate countdown round, Rogotzke took first in a dramatic final buzzer. Carlovsky took second, Spike took third, and Schaefer took fifth. All St. Paul’s students were eliminated only by their teammates.

This year was the 23rd MathCounts tournament organized and hosted by 3M in New Ulm. A total of 130 students from 11 schools in the area met to test the mettle of their minds.

The competition consists of four rounds: sprint, target, team and countdown. During the sprint round, students have 40 minutes to answer 30 questions without the aid of a calculator.

The target round has students testing their problem-solving and mathematical reasoning skills. They’re tasked with a total of four tests, two questions each, with six minutes to complete each test.

In the team round, the four members of each official team work together solving 10 math problems in 20 minutes.

The final round has students facing off one on one in a bracketed competition.

The students have 45 seconds to buzz in and answer each question correctly. Whoever manages to complete the question first eliminates their opponent and moves on to the next bracket.

3M hosts the tournament to help prepare students for success at the official chapter meet on Feb. 1 at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Teams may compete at a total of four levels: school, chapter, state and national. Everyone may compete at the local level. Ten students, one official team of four and six individuals, may compete at the local chapter competitions.

The winners of the chapter competitions move on to state, and the top four students in each state meet compete nationally in Washington, D.C., with four-person teams.

For more information on MathCounts, visit mathcounts.org.

Gage Cureton can be emailed at gcureton@nujournal.com.