It was like the "Olympics Trials of Mathematics" for the two Lexington Middle School teams participating in the Mathcounts Metropolitan Chapter competition at the Williams Middle School in Chelsea on Saturday, February 3. Diamond and Clarke, in their usual fashion, dominated the 28-team competition, with Diamond taking the championship trophy, and Clarke squeaking in close behind in fourth place. Both teams will advance to the state finals on Saturday, March 3 at Wentworth Institute in Boston.

Diamond, in addition to its fourth victory in five years, had three students in the top ten students out of the158 who participated. Diamond's David Iba came in second place. David Wen was sixth and received an award for being the highest-scoring 7th grader. Jon Poage was 8th. Gillian Stewart was 15th, and received an award as the second-highest scoring female. As individual competitors, Dan Fudenberg came in 21st place and received an award as the highest scoring 6th grader. Crystal Chang came in 23rd place. Aurelia Chaudhury finished 26th, and Michael Lipschutz was 38th.

Clarke's Adam Fried, competing for the second year, was the individual champion. Ben Guth was 14th. Alice Tomic came in tied for 15th place, and received an award as the highest-scoring female. Eva Rosenberg was 19th. As individual competitors, Albert Chen finished in a tie for 10th place, Elizabeth Drelich was tied for 15th, Nick Joliat was 29th, and Chen Chen Jia was 41st.

Diamond and Clarke will advance to the state finals next month. The top four students will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. to participate in the National Finals in May.

This year's Lexington coaches are no strangers to the national competition. Evagrio Mosca, Diamond math teacher and Mathcounts coach, led the 1999 Diamond team to the state championship, and subsequently led the 1999 state team to a national championship, along with Diamond students Mark Lipson and Liz Marcil. Michelle Wetter, Clarke math teacher and Mathcounts coach, launched the 2000 Clarke team to a first place state finish, and Clarke student Adam Rosenfield to an 8th place finish at the national finals.

Mathcounts champions of the 2001 Metropolitan Chapter competition, from left to right: Liz Marcil (1999 national team champion, and Diamond assistant coach), Dan Fudenberg, Mr. Mosca (coach), Aurelia Chaudhury, Michael Lipschutz, Crystal Chang, Jon Poage, David Wen, Gillian Stewart, David Iba, Ms Finkelstein (assistant coach)

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