Minnesota State High School Mathematics League

The Minnesota State High School Mathematics League is a high school mathematics league in the state of Minnesota. It was founded in 1980 by Macalester College professor Wayne Roberts. The league holds five statewide tournaments per year from November through February, as well as a state tournament in March. It is one of the Minnesota Mathematics Competitions.

Regular season

There are five meets for each regular season. For each meet, there are four individual events, A-D. Each mathlete chooses to compete in two individual events. Each high school chooses its eight top mathletes, including at least two students below the eleventh grade, as its "varsity" team, which actually earns points in the name of the school and competes together in the team event; the other students simply compete for themselves in whichever two individual events they choose. Each individual event contains one one point question and three two point questions, so the maximum a person may score per meet is fourteen points. The team events each contain six questions worth four points each. A team's total score is determined by adding the individual scores of the varsity members and the varsity team score. At the end of the season, teams are selected for the state tournament based on their season score.^[1]

State tournament

The state tournament begins with the Invitational event. The Invitational is a 14-question test (with a maximum score of 24) taken by the top 50 students in the regular season. Later during the day, students participate in a meet that is structured like the regular-season meets (with a maximum score of 14). The combined total score of these two events determines the champion of the state tournament.

Math Bowl

The Math Bowl brings together the top 10 scorers from the Invitational event, and they compete live onstage, solving eight problems one at a time with a limited amount of time for each problem. The person who solves the most questions is declared the Math Bowl champion. If there is a tie after eight questions, sudden death ensues, in which everyone tied with the highest score remains onstage. They remain onstage until they miss a question someone else got correctly. The last participant remaining is declared the champion. However, should multiple people remain onstage after 14 total questions, the procedure is changed for the 15th (last) question. To ensure that only one person wins the Math Bowl, only the person who correctly answers the 15th question first is declared the champion.

Stan Hill Memorial Award

The combined total score of the regular season and state tournament determines the top all-around individual and the Stan Hill Memorial Award winner.

Past winners

The league officially recognizes individual and team winners of two types each season, one with the highest overall regular season score, and one with the highest state tournament score. The league also crowns one math bowl winner each season. Since the 1988-89 season, the league has recognized an additional Tier 2 state tournament winner among smaller schools, with larger schools designated as Tier 1.^[2]

Beginning with the 2019-20 season, a weighted scoring system known as "Power Points" was used to rank the top individuals. Team scores continued to use the standard scoring format.^[3]

Year	Individual				Team
	Season	Tournament	Math Bowl	All around	Season	Tournament (Tier 1)	Tournament (Tier 2)
2021-2022	Henry Zheng	Linden Lee	Linden Lee	Linden Lee	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	International School of Minnesota, Eagle Ridge Academy
2020-2021	Matthew Chen	Linden Lee	Linden Lee	Matthew Chen	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Mankato West High School
2019-2020	Ben Yan	Timothy Alexander, Alexander Zhu	Alexander Zhu	David Zhang	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Technical Senior High School
2018-2019	Frank Han, Frank Lu	Frank Han, Frank Lu	Frank Han	Frank Han, Frank Lu	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Highland Park High School
2017-2018	Geoffrey Chen, Frank Han, Frank Lu, Daniel Stein	Frank Han, Alexander Zhu	Alexander Zhu	Frank Han	Wayzata High School	Century High School	St. John's Preparatory
2016-2017	Frank Han, Alex Pan, Daniel Stein, Michael Tang	Frank Han, Nikhil Marda, Michael Tang, Nathan Weckwerth, Jenny Zhang	Frank Han	Frank Han, Michael Tang	Wayzata High School	Edina High School	Cotter High School
2015-2016	Daniel Qu	Kenrick Bjelland, Frank Han, Daniel Qu, Michael Tang	Michael Tang	Daniel Qu	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. John's Preparatory
2014-2015	Daniel Qu, Daniel Stein, Henry Wang, Nathan Weckwerth	Jordan Haack	Michael Tang	Jordan Haack	Wayzata High School	Edina High School	St. Paul Academy
2013-2014	Henry Wang	Michael Tang	Michael Tang	Michael Tang	Wayzata High School	Edina High School	Shattuck-St. Mary's School
2012-2013	Abram Sanderson	Ian McMeeking, Andy Ylitalo, Roy Zhao	Roy Zhao	Ian McMeeking, Roy Zhao	Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2011-2012	Abram Sanderson	Roy Zhao			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Cotter High School
2010-2011	Rohit Agrawal, Gaurav Singh	Rohit Agrawal, Gaurav Singh			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Cotter High School
2009-2010	Rohit Agrawal, Gaurav Singh	Rohit Agrawal			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2008-2009	Rohit Agrawal	Martin Camacho			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	Cotter High School
2007-2008	Shui Hu	Shui Hu			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2006-2007	Nick Arnosti	Rohan Agrawal, Shui Hu			St. Paul Central High School	St. Paul Central High School	The Marshall School
2005-2006	Rohan Agrawal, Shui Hu	Rohan Agrawal			Mounds View High School	Mounds View High School
2004-2005	Silas Johnson	Daniel Gibson			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2003-2004	Ning Zhou	Ning Zhou			Wayzata High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2002-2003	Dan Baker	Daniel Herriges			Highland Park High School	Wayzata High School	St. Paul Academy
2001-2002	Pavel Batrachenko	Matt Thibault			Highland Park High School	Highland Park High School	The Marshall School
2000-2001	Matt Thibault	Michel D'sa			Mounds View High School	St. Paul Central High School	The Marshall School
1999-2000	Andrew Gacek, Sam Lindsay-Levine, Nate Sheetz	Sam Lindsay-Levine			Mounds View High School	Mounds View High School	Benilde-St. Margaret's
1998-1999	Andy Niedermaier	Jon Moon			St. Paul Central High School	St. Paul Academy	Benilde-St. Margaret's
1997-1998	Dave Freeman	Dave Freeman			St. Paul Central High School	Irondale High School	Benilde-St. Margaret's
1996-1997	Jin Wang	Bill Owens			St. Paul Central High School	St. Paul Central High School	The Blake School
1995-1996	Michael Korn	Michael Korn			Mounds View High School	Wayzata High School	The Blake School
1994-1995	Michael Korn	Michael Korn			Mounds View High School	Mounds View High School	St. Paul Academy
1993-1994	Derek Farmer	Matt Koetz			Irondale High School	St. Paul Academy	The Blake School
1992-1993	Mary Hu	Tom Wieand			Bloomington Jefferson High School	Bloomington Jefferson High School	The Blake School
1991-1992	Erik Vee	Kuan-Chuen Wu			Hibbing High School	St. Paul Academy	Moose Lake High School
1990-1991	Ron Dror	Ron Dror			Spring Lake Park High School	Columbia Heights High School	St. Anthony Village High School
1989-1990	Matt Kelly	Matt Kelly			The Blake School	Mounds View High School	St. Anthony Village High School
1988-1989	Steve Walther	Tom Monikowski			Columbia Heights High School	Owatonna High School	St. Paul Academy
Year	Season	Tournament			Season	Tournament
1987-1988	Josh Brandon	Jim Mashek			Minneapolis South High School	Highland Park High School
1986-1987	Steve Kuhn	Peter Bermann			Saint Louis Park High School	Saint Louis Park High School
1985-1986	Hieu Nguyen	Tom Chung			Apple Valley High School
1984-1985	Paul Ohman	Tom Chung			Saint Louis Park High School	St. Paul Academy
1983-1984	Mike Pavloff				Minneapolis South High School
1982-1983	Bob Fink				Hibbing High School
Year	Twin City Division	Iron Range Division			Twin City Division	Iron Range Division
1981-1982	Son Nguyen	Joe Baraga			Highland Park High School	Hibbing High School
1980-1981	Erik Riddle				Como Park Senior High School

All-state math teams

The Minnesota State High School Mathematics League sponsors the Minnesota All-State Mathematics Teams, which compete annually at ARML (American Regions Mathematics League), HMMT (Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament) and some other college math competitions. Selection is based on the math league regular season and state tournament scores and American Mathematics Competitions scores. The MN All-State Gold Team is the first team, consisting of 15 students for ARML and 8 students for HMMT. Traditionally MN All-State Math Teams have had many successes in these national competitions.

References

1. "MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS LEAGUE: LEAGUE MANUAL 2020-2021" (PDF). Minnesota State High School Mathematics League. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
2. 1980-2005 data from Roberts, A. Wayne (2005). Minnesota Math League XXV. Beaver's Pond Press. ISBN 1-59298-111-9.
3. "Math League Scoring Changes 2019-2020" (PDF). Minnesota State High School Mathematics League. Retrieved 27 March 2022.

External links

• Minnesota State High School Math League web page
• List of Mathematics Competitions in Minnesota