List of Winners of The Mathcounts Competition - Winners

Winners

Each year, teams of four students per state compete, from which one individual winner and one team winner is chosen; the individual winner is chosen through a written examination and then an oral head-to-head competition (the Countdown round), and the team winner is chosen through a series of written examinations. This format was first used in 1984. The top team as well as the participants in the Countdown round are sometimes allowed a trip to the White House and meet the current President of the United States. They also may receive scholarships from Mathcounts' sponsors. Trophies are given out at the state level, and occasionally at the national level.

The champion of the 2005 Mathcounts National Competition was Neal Wu of Louisiana, a seventh-grader at the time, and he was ranked ninth in the written round. The runner-up was Mark Zhang from the Texas team. Sergei Bernstein from Massachusetts won the written round as well as the Master's Round. Texas won first place in the team competition, though Indiana had three participants in the Countdown Round. Despite having the national champion, the Louisiana team placed 13th. The award for Most Improved team, comparing the current year's rank to the average of rankings from the past ten years, was Oklahoma, which placed 6th in the national competition under coach Dan Beaty. Two of the top four students were girls (Patricia Li of California and Karlanna Lewis of Florida) for the first time in the history of the national competition.

The champion of the 2006 Mathcounts National Competition was Daesun Yim of New Jersey, and the runner up was Andrew Ardito of New York, respectively ranking 5th and 10th in the written round. The nationals team winner was Virginia (seventeenth last year), and second and third place went to Washington (fifteenth) and Indiana (second) respectively. The winning team from last year, Texas, got fourth, and California (third last year) got tenth. The Most Improved team was South Carolina, which went from 56th place to 16th place under coach John Rushman. The winner of the Spirit award was Wyoming. The Spirit Stick was presented to the Wyoming team by the New Hampshire team (last year's Spirit award winner). The written round winner was last year's champion, Neal Wu. The written round runner-up was Daniel Li of VA, who also won the Masters Round. The highest placing seventh grader was Kevin Chen, from Texas, who placed third after the written round and made it to the semi-finals in the Countdown Round.

The champion of the Masters Round and the 2007 Mathcounts National Champion, was Kevin Y. Chen of Sugar Land, Texas. He was seeded 3rd in the written round. Ben Kraft of Pennsylvania (seeded 5th) was the runner-up. Justin Ahmann from Indiana was the top 7th grader and was 1st in the written round, followed by Allen Yuan of Michigan, while Bobby Shen of Sugar Land, Texas was the top 6th grader (13th). Texas won the team competition as well. The most improved team went to Nevada and the Spirit Award went to Pennsylvania, whose team cheer was a parody of "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy."

Kevin Chen appeared on Live with Regis & Kelly on the May 30, 2007, show. After visiting the "Live with Regis and Kelly" show in May, Kevin was nominated for an annual Relly award. On Friday, September 21, Kevin took home the Relly award for Best Junior Achiever after receiving the most votes from viewers.

6th grader Darryl Wu of Washington won the 2008 national championship, seeded third in the Written Round. He appeared on the talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly" on May 16, 2008. He currently attends Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington. Bobby Shen of Sugar Land, Texas won second place (Bobby was also the 2008 written round champion and master's round champion). The written round runner-up was Jason Hyun, a seventh grader from Maryland. Anderson Wang of Pennsylvania and Evan Miller of Kentucky were the semifinalists in the countdown round. Although Maryland had three students in the top five in the Written Round, they were only placed third in the team round because of their poor team round score. Once again, Texas won team national championship. This is the third title for Texas during last four years; the team was led by Coach Jeff Boyd of Sugar Land, Texas all three years. The most improved team was South Dakota, and the Spirit Award went to New York, whose cheer was a variation of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York.

The 2009 national Mathcounts champion was 8th grader Bobby Shen of First Colony Middle School in Sugar Land, Texas; Bobby appeared on the NBC Today Show on May 11, 2009. David Yang from California was runner-up and winner of the written competition. In the final Countdown round, which was 1st-seeded David Yang against 3rd-seeded Bobby Shen, a controversy arose. The score was tied 3-3, with 4 being necessary to win, when the final question started. David Yang pressed his buzzer quickly, but his answer (which was correct) was disqualified as he overstepped the 3-second time limit for answering. Bobby Shen then gave the same answer (within the time limit), and won the National competition. Alan Zhou of Massachusetts and Maximilian Schindler of Missouri were the semifinalists in the countdown round. The team title went to Texas for the third consecutive year. The winner of the Master's Round was Maximilian Schindler from Missouri, who was second in the written competition. The top 6th grader was Scott Wu of Louisiana, placing 13th. The most improved team was New Mexico, and the Spirit Award went to the Virgin Islands. The top two teams visited the White House on July 20, 2009, where they crossed paths with the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

The 2010 National Competition was won by Mark Sellke of Indiana, who also won the written round. Second place in both written and overall was Shyam Narayanan of Kansas, who was also the top 7th grader. The Masters Round winner was Alex Song from Michigan. The other semifinalist was Darryl Wu from Washington, who won the competition in 2008 as a 6th grader. The winning team was California for the 6th time in Mathcounts history. Illinois and Washington won 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. Massachusetts placed 4th and Texas was 6th. The Team Spirit award went to Kentucky, and the most improved award went to New Mexico for the second time in a row. The top 6th grader was Allen Liu from New York. He was 9th place in the written round. The California team, consisting of team members Douglas Chen, Eugene Chen, Lewis Chen, and Aaron Lin along with coach Donna Phair, Sellke, and Narayanan visited the White House on June 29, 2010, where they met President Obama.

In 2011 the National Competition was won by Scott Wu of Louisiana. The runner-up, Yang Liu of Missouri, was also the Masters Round champion. The written champion was Shyam Narayanan of Kansas. Alec Sun of Massachusetts was the top 6th grader and Kevin Sun of Illinois was the top 7th grader. The winning state was California for the 7th time in history. Second and third place went to Michigan and Texas, respectively.

The 2012 National Competition was held at Orlando, Florida. The 2012 champion was Chad Qian from Indiana. Ashwin Sah from Oregon was the runner-up. Sean Shi from California was the Written Round Champion, and Alec Sun of Massachusetts was the Written Round runner-up. Ashwin Sah was the top 7th grader and Michael Ma from Texas was the top scoring 6th grader. The winning state was Massachusetts, whose team members all received $2,000 dollars and a trip to space camp. Illinois and Washington were the 2nd and 3rd place teams, respectively.