McLean students earn first place at Mathcounts state competition

Two McLean students are headed to Florida for the national Mathcounts competition after finishing first and second in the state competition March 18 in Richmond.

BASIS Independent McLean’s four-student team won their division in its first time competing, according to a BASIS release.

The team includes Austin Feng (8th grade), Joshua Fu (8th grade), Pravalika Putalapattu, (7th grade) and Ethan Zhou (6th grade). They are led by Coaches Tyler Sullivan and Rikki McCullough.

In the individual Mathcounts competitions, Putalapattu and Zhou placed first and second, respectively, which places them on the four-person team representing Virginia at the 2017 Raytheon Mathcounts National Competition in Orlando in May.

As coach of the winning Mathcounts team, McCullough will also be flown to Orlando to coach the Virginia state team.

“As first-time competitors, we were thrilled to see our school win our regional Mathcounts championship, but to see them succeed at the state level and have the opportunity to compete nationally is truly an outstanding achievement, and we’re so proud of our student-teacher team that made this possible,” said Sean Aiken, head of school of BASIS Independent McLean.

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