This past weekend Prairie was proud to send a team of students to Sheboygan for the state Mathcounts event. Rohan Peddamallu ’27, Cate Vaccaro ’27, Luca Castellano ’29, and Jillian Anders ’29 represented TPS in the competition.

It was a return to glory of sorts for the Hawks as Prairie has historically fielded strong Mathcounts teams. However, in recent years the program had taken a hiatus until a student-led push earlier this year led to the reinstitution of the program.

“Rohan (Peddamallu) and his teammates are the ones responsible for bringing this back to Prairie,” says Kelly Christensen, 6/7 Math Teacher and Mathcounts Advisor. “It wasn’t my idea or the Middle School’s idea. It was the kids’ idea.”

Prairie’s Mathletes earned their trip to State by winning a local chapter competition in February. The competition in Sheboygan consisted of three rounds: Sprint (30 questions in 40 minutes without using a calculator), Target (8 questions in 24 minutes with calculators), and Team (10 questions in 30 minutes that the kids could collaborate on).

“While our kids didn’t place in the top, they learned a lot,” says Christensen. “They feel really accomplished for even making it there and rightfully so.”

After a highly successful first season, the hope, Christensen says, is to continue recruiting interested students as Prairie prepares to compete in the future.