Pope John XXIII School wins big at Mathlete competition

Pope John XXIII School in Evanston and Mathleague.org hosted an elementary and middle school math competition on Nov. 15, 2019. The elementary contest was held from 8:30 a.m. to noon and the middle school contest ran from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at Pope John XXIII School in Evanston.

The contest for elementary school students included: Number Sense, Sprint, Target and Team Test rounds; middle school contests consisted of: Sprint, Target, Team, and Countdown rounds. Prizes were awarded to the top students in each grade level, as well as to the top teams.

It was a great day for the Pope John XXIII Mathletes - 17 elementary students qualified for the state competition and 3 middle school students qualified for the national competition. Pope John XXIII also took home several trophies, including 2nd place overall in the elementary school division.

Here are the results (SQ=state qualifier; NQ=national qualifier): 3rd Grade 1st - Elijah Gyorgy (SQ) 2nd - Alex Bolo (SQ) 3rd - Cillian Doss (SQ) 4th - Camille Jarder 6th - Ava Sulton 7th - Emilie Young (SQ) 4th Grade 2nd - Moira Ong (SQ) 3rd - Anthony O’Brien (SQ) 8th - Ryan Diaz 10th - Andrea Florescu 5th Grade 2nd - Alec Moores (SQ) 3rd - Matt O’Connor (SQ) 4th - Alexandra Merriam (SQ) 7th - Nikolai Tyurin (SQ) 8th - Meg Alznauer (SQ) 9th - JuanCa Chiwah (SQ) 10th - Nathaniel Wolff (SQ) Leila Sanchez (SQ) Jack Perkins (SQ) Charlie Titzer (SQ) Rodrigo Salinas (SQ) 7th Grade 1st - Danny O’Connor (NQ) 6th - Elizabeth Potosnak (NQ) 9th - Jonas Nissan 8th Grade 9th - Kylie Titzer (NQ) 10th - Julio Plata

Historically, Pope John XXIII Mathletes have fared quite well at Mathleague.org competitions. In fact, the first year Pope John XXIII competed (2017), they sent Elizabeth Potosnak (then in 5th grade) to the State Competition. Last year, Pope John XXIII won both the Regional and State Competitions in Division 6 (a difficult division as there are more schools in this division) and sent five students to Nationals: Elizabeth Potosnak, Danny O'Connor and Colin Langford (then 6th graders) and Nikolai Tyurin and Matt O'Connor (then 4th graders).

The Mathletes are coached by Pope John XXIII teachers Mrs. Erica Whitmore, Satinder Ajmani, and Christine Suk. Whitmore started the Mathlete Club at Pope John XXIII School and has been coaching the Mathletes since 2017. The Regional and State Competitions will be held in April or May of 2020.

Additional information and an approximate schedule can be found at: • Elementary http://mathleague.org/escontest.php?event=5387) • Middle School http://mathleague.org/mscontest.php?event=5388)

Pope John XXIII School has a long history in Catholic education in Evanston dating back to 1886 with the establishment of St. Nicholas and St. Mary’s Schools. The original St. Nicholas School was in the building now called the Annex where Fr. Oldershaw Hall is located. The Annex at the present time holds the gym, computer lab, and the music room. The main school building was built in 1954. In 1986 the two schools, St. Mary’s and St. Nicholas consolidated and the new school was renamed Pope John XXIII. This consolidation is a success story for both parishes and for the Archdiocese.

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