Last Updated: 01/23/2012*

Raytheon MATHCOUNTS® National Competition Crowns America’s Newest Top ‘Mathlete’®

Mark Sellke of West Lafayette, Ind. was named the winner of the 2010 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS® National Competition today at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. This year’s winning Mathlete® answered the following math problem in less than 45 seconds to be crowned the national champion of this year’s competition:

Question: To play the following game, you start with $1. With each move, you can either double your money or add $1 to it. What is the smallest number of moves you have to make to get to exactly $200?

Answer: 9 (moves)

The 8th-grader from Klondike Middle School competed against 223 other middle school students in this prestigious competition, which pits the best and brightest in middle school mathematics against each other.

Sellke was victorious in the intense, one-on-one Countdown Round where the top 12 Mathletes competed for the title of this year’s Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Champion. Shyam Narayanan, of Overland Park, Kan. was awarded the second-place individual title with Alex Song, of Beverly Hills, Mich. and Darryl Wu, of Bellevue, Wash. advancing to the semi-finals. In the team competition, California captured the title of National Team Champions. Team members include Douglas Chen, of Cupertino, Calif.; Eugene Chen, of Pleasanton, Calif.; Lewis Chen, of Fremont, Calif.; Aaron Lin, of Fremont, Calif.; and coach Donna Phair, of Fremont, Calif. The Illinois team took second place and the Washington team placed third.

“On behalf of the 75,000 members of our Raytheon team — including tens of thousands of engineers and scientists who use math constantly — I want to congratulate this year’s MATHCOUNTS champion and all of the students who participated in the exciting competition," said William H. Swanson, Chairman and CEO of Raytheon Company and 2010 MATHCOUNTS honorary chairman. "Mathematics is the common language of our world, and it is a path to our future. My greatest wish is that the students will remember the excitement of this competition and continue to use math throughout their studies and in their exciting careers to come.”

Student representatives from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Department of Defense and State Department schools worldwide participated in the 2010 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition. To advance to the national competition, students had to not only place in the top four of their peers during their state competition in March, but they also had to advance through local and chapter-level competitions.