During the February 5, 2025, School Board meeting, Principal Sullivan announced that the Oyster River Middle School (ORMS) MATHCOUNTS competition team (Elizabeth, Julia, Yizhou, and Ian) earned first place in the Seacoast regional finals at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). The team will next compete in the state championship in Concord on March 15.

MATHCOUNTS is a national middle school challenging mathematics program and competition that builds problem-solving skills. The ORMS after-school club is run by Intervention Tutor Krista Butts and community member Dean Rubine.

"Competing at the chapter competition was an amazing experience,” said Yizhou "And I want to give a huge shoutout to my coaches, Ms. Butts and Mr. Rubine, for supporting us along the way. All our team's practice and hard work paid off and I look forward to competing at the State Competition!"

In addition to the competition team, three other students entered the UNH competition as individuals (Derek, Anaragya, and Anyan). Anyan and Derek qualified for states, placing second and fourth, respectively. 

“Perhaps one of the most exciting wins of the day came in the Countdown Round,” said Ms. Butts. “This is a speed competition where students are going head-to-head to answer difficult math questions in 45 seconds or less. The first person to get the right answer wins a point, and the person with the most points in a round of 3 questions wins the round. Yizhou took first place and Derek, Elizabeth, and Anyan all qualified.”

Principal Sullivan said, “MATHCOUNTS students are dedicated to academic excellence. They stay after school to work on incredibly hard math problems, and we are very proud of them.”