For the 14th year in a row the Powell Middle School’s Mathcounts team has come out on top at the annual Chapter Contest at Northwest College, winning their latest title Feb. 6.

Last year the team went even further with a first place finish at state that led to Coach Dale Estes being selected to lead Wyoming’s four highest placing students in Orlando, Florida.

Powell’s students swept this year’s contest with the team of Gianreye D’Alessandro, Landon Petersen, Hunter Taylor and Tyler Kruger taking first. Individually Kruger placed first, Petersen placed second, D’Alessandro placed third, Black placed fourth, Taylor placed fifth and Brady Kuenn placed sixth. In the countdown round Taylor took first, Petersen second, Kruger third and D’Alessandro fourth.

Each year Mathcounts has a “good group of kids.” Estes said he’s been pleased with their performance this season and moving forward the team will continue to learn new strategies and solve new problems when they come in at 7 a.m. on Wednesday mornings for practice. 

In addition to a 14 year winning streak as a team, Powell Middle School has also swept the individual events for the past three years. 

This year’s competition was down from five teams to three, but a Thermopolis student was particularly fast in the countdown round. Taylor added that Powell students earned the top four placements in the countdown round but it was difficult to do because of Thermopolis’ fast student and another challenger from Burlington.

Now the team has their eyes set on the state competition in Laramie.

On the individual level the team agreed that they hope to improve from last year. Black’s goal is to place within the top 15 and Taylor, who competed on last year’s state team, wants to try to make nationals in Maryland so that he can see his great uncle in Washington, D.C.

At nationals Taylor said the winner of the competition is the winner of the countdown round.