Last month, the Gainesville High School (GHS) math team finished eighth overall at the 2022 Mu Alpha Theta Convention.  

The team earned a total of 4806.5 points during the competition held in Alexandria, Virginia and joined Buchholz High School as two Gainesville teams finishing in the top 10. Buchholz won its 14^th national championship.  

It marked GHS’s third appearance at the national competition, two of which concluded in top 10 finishes, according to team coach and GHS math teacher Kelley Serravalle. The team finished sixth at last year’s national competition that was held virtually due to COVID-19.   
 
GHS placed 10^th at the Florida Mu Alpha Theta competition in Orlando in April.  

Serravalle praised the students for their dedication and determination leading up to the competition. 

“The students worked really hard over the school year,” she said. “Even over the summer, we had practice for two and a half weeks before the competition. Some of which would last several hours. Most of their practices were self-led by helping each other and using old tests.” 

Finishing in the top 10 at nationals is no easy fete, but for Serravalle, she was most proud of the obstacles the team overcame to achieve accomplishment. 

“I was especially proud of them since they stepped up when some of our students with the best performances at State couldn’t make it to nationals,” she said. “We had 24 students in the state competition while the number dropped to 14 who were able to go to nationals (due to various summer commitments).” 

The students weren’t the only ones to receive credit for the math team’s success. Serravalle said the leader for the last 20 years, Michelle Rapp, has built the team herself, along with help from Lauren Henehan. Last year Rapp stepped down and Serravalle and Henehan took over. 

“I plan on leading the GHS team as long as they will have me, of course, with Henehan as well,” said Serravalle. 

GHS placings at the Mu Alpha Theta Convention:  

Theta Category: 

Sasha Folkers- 10th in Statistics team division, 11th in Theta Chalk Talk 

Katie Law- 12th for Theta team division, 8th in Open History of Math 

Kareem Meinel- 12th for Theta team division, 11th in Hustle team 

Savannah Satterfield- 10th in Statistics team division 

Charlotte Shea- 12th for Theta team division, 14th in Theta Logs & Exponents, 1st in the Theta Mystery Test 

Kallum Wang- 12th for Theta team division, 11th in Relay team 

Alpha Category: 

Tessa Becker- 10th in Statistics team division 

Vincent Griffin- 7th in Alpha Chalk Talk, 13th in Open Monumental Math   

Alex Johnstone- 11th in Hustle team, 13th in Alpha Trigonometry 

Alyssa Ohaegbulam- 11th in Relay team 

Dominic Walpole- 11th in Hustle team 

Mu category: 

Ben Duffant- 11th in Relay team, tied for 1st in Mu Mystery Test, 12th for Mu team division.  

Grant Gravlee- 11th in Hustle team, tied for 1st in Mu Mystery Test, 9th in Mu Differential Equations, 9th in Mu Area and Volume, 11th in Mu Applications, 12th for Mu team division 

Bobby Ryan- 6th in Mu Chalk Talk, 5th in Mu Sequences & Series, 9th in Mu Comic Sans, 12th for Mu team division