Charles Crane/MDN Liliana Froseth of Jim Hill Middle School and Nolan Moore of Our Redeemer’s Christian School ponder one of the problems from the final round of the Ward County MATHCOUNTS competition on Wednesday.

Minot State University played host to young mathematical adepts from area middle schools for the Ward County MATHCOUNTS competition on Wednesday.

The competition began with two rounds in which students worked independently, first in a sprint to finish 30 problems in 30 minutes without a calculator and then a target round which afforded them six minutes to complete sets of four problem pairs with a calculator. A team round followed in which teams of four were tasked with finishing 10 problems in 10 minutes.

When the dust settled, the top placing teams from the city schools were Memorial Middle School in first, Erik Ramstad Middle School in second and Jim Hill Middle School in third. The winning teams from other Ward County schools were Des Lacs-Burlington in first place, Our Redeemer’s Christian School in second and Surrey in third.

The top three individual performers were Asher Wilhelm from Des Lacs-Burlington, Fisher Strom and Nolan Moore, both of Our Redeemer’s, from the county; and Kohen Merkel of Erik Ramstad, Jay Jenson of Memorial and Connor Jack of Jim Hill from within Minot.

The morning’s results whittled down the competitors to the top eight performers, who then duked it out in a countdown round, pitting two of them in rapid fire head-to-head questions.

The final confrontation was between Liliana Froseth of Jim Hill and Nolan Moore of Our Redeemer’s. Despite several questions stumping both competitors, Froseth found herself ahead, with two correct answers to one, and in position to secure the win. However, Moore would rally back and provide correct answers back to back to claim victory from the jaws of defeat.

The top team and individual performers at the Ward County competition will go on to compete at the State MATHCOUNTS on March 24 in Bismarck. The top four individual finalists and the top team coach at the state competition receive an all expense paid trip to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C., on May 11-12.