Woods Charters scores in math, science and basketball

By Heather Gallagher
Posted Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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Chatham County, NC - The Woods MATHCOUNTS team had a great experience at MATHCOUNTS 2008 at Athens High School in Raleigh on Saturday, February 23.

Our students earned 8th place out of 34 school teams represented. This was 17 places higher than 25th place last year. All of Woods' students placed in the top 200. Woods' very own Christopher Hunt came in 4th place in both written math testing and the "countdown-game show" round where only the top 16 students out of all students participating compete. Christopher's 4th place finishes awarded him two trophies and an invitation to the State MATHCOUNTS competition on March 14 at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, N.C. The team's improvement earned them the "Most Improved School" for the competition and they were awarded a beautiful trophy to be placed in Woods new display case!

Sam Hickey, Christopher Hunt, Trevyn Larson, Austin Moody, Brian Rossi, Diana Royer, and Eric Tapp competed on Saturday.

Mr. Wertz added "A huge congratulations and thank you to Mrs. Melissa Hickey for being a dedicated, encouraging and motivational MATHCOUNTS coach this year. As the team's success is a product of the entire MATHCOUNTS team at Woods, I want to thank and congratulate Larisa Bennett, Luke Hickey, Daniel Royer, Emma Hayes and Cy Angelillo for consistently coming to MATHCOUNTS over the last three months, being a part of the team and challenging the students who went to the competition. Finally, thank you to the math teachers; you really helped to get Christopher ready for his "Countdown Round!"

Basketball News

Congratulations to Robert Springer and Preston Ferguson who were selected for the CCAL All-Conference honorable mention team!

Science Olympiad 2008

Congratulations to the Woods Charter School Science Olympiad teams.

In their first ever competition, the High School team of Matt Gibson, Stephen Hinkle, Morgan Fine-Morris, Ben Holden, Jonathan Villanueva, Sam Holden, Bryan Vandjik, Andrew Moseby, and Josh Owen, coached by Nancy and Bob Holden and non-Woods parent Matt Lavoie, entered 4 events; Flying Bird, Junk Yard Challenge, Wright Stuff, and Forensics. They placed 3rd in all events except Forensics which got them a 4th place finish, a great effort against 11 other high schools!!!! Special thanks to Coach Berry, Ms. Futrell, Ms. Johnson, John Rice, Phoebe Shih, and the Perschys for all their help acquiring practice spaces and supplies.

The second year Middle School team is becoming a force to be reckoned with. They entered all events and glided to a 3rd place finish overall! Congratulations to the team of Cheyenne Tavana, Jordan Tavana, Matthew Kornberg, Maddie Laethem, Claire Day, Mia Kaplan, Daniel Royer, Nick Van Hoy, Tommy Holden, Joseph Sharp, Angel Laws, Erin Durham, Kyle Perschy, Hunter Perschy, Martha Farrell, Owen Essen, Harli Hanson, and Patrick Lynch. They medaled in half the events but placed high enough in everything for that 3rd place finish. This 3rd place team is off to the state level competition along with their parent coaches, Bill Hanson, Carmen Laethem, Megan Lynch, John Perschy, Joan Royer, Phoebe Smith, Mike Van Hoy, and Head Coach Tiersa Tavana!!

The State competition is on the campus of NC State in the Reynolds Coliseum on Saturday, April 5. Consider coming out and watching some of the spectator events and supporting the Woods Charter Middle School Team!