Benet Academy Math Teams Named State Champions

from Benet Academy

The Benet Academy Math Team won the Illinois 3AA State Championship Saturday, May 5 in Champaign-Urbana. The title was the Math Team’s second, the other occurring in 2005.

Senior Tom Gannon of Downers Grove set the tone early in the day by winning the state championship in the Oral competition with 48 out of a possible 50 points. Later in the day, in a large jam packed auditorium, Tom and Junior Brendan Caseria of Naperville finished second in the State in the Junior-Senior two-person competition. To wrap up a terrific day, Tom capped it off with an 8th place finish in the Pre-Calculus written competition. The senior team of Rachel Berry of Naperville, Sabrina Lichon of Naperville, Brian Meier of Downers Grove, Robbie Stanley of Warrenville, Jeff Sweeney of Downers Grove and Gannon finished in 4th place, their highest finish ever at the State Math Meet.

Caseria also had a terrific day, not only joining with Gannon for the two-person runner-up, but Brendan also won the state championship in the Algebra 2 individual written competition leading the junior team of Jake Camp of Darien, Pat Gallagher of Naperville, Pat Hawley of Naperville, Kevin Scheer of Clarendon Hills, Tom Wester of Naperville and Caseria to the junior level team championship. Pat Hawley also finished in the top ten in the individual written contest.

Sophomore Jack Stucky of Lisle also won a state championship in the Geometry written competition, leading the sophomore team of Eva Baghdan of Westmont, Jon Lindsay-Rivera of Oswego, Leah Tzakis of Naperville, Ryan Will of Aurora, Ryan Wolfe of Naperville and Stucky to a 5th place finish.  Stucky, along with Freshman Matt Rossi of Naperville, finished 3rd in the state in the Freshman-Sophomore two-person contest.

Rossi and freshman Max Helfers of Plainfield tied for seventh place in the Algebra 1 written competition, leading the freshmen team of Ryan D’Mello of Naperville, Max Houck of Naperville, Tess Moriarty of Naperville, Tara Mayoralgo of Naperville, Rossi and Helfers to a tie for the freshman team championship.

The Junior-Senior Relay team of Wester, Gallagher, Sweeney and Meier won the state championship, and the team of Camp, Hawley, Stanley and Lichon finished seventh. The Freshman Relay team of Helfers, D’Mello, Wolfe and Tzakis finished in seventh place. The Freshman-Sophomore eight-person team (Lindsay-Rivera, Stucky, Tzakis, Zimmerman, D’Mello, Houck, Rossi, Mayoalgo) won the state championship, while the Junior-Senior 8-person team (Lichon, Berry, Stanley, Gallagher, Camp, Caseria, Hawley, Wester) finished third.