By Taylor Doss
Intern
New Hanover County’s Noble Middle School is in contention for two championship titles in mathematics and literature in the 2017 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition and the Battle of The Books State Championship.
The students at Noble Middle School have put their newly renovated library to serious use. After winning first place place in their regional competition, NMS’s literary scholars will have their own chance to win the top title at the state Battle of the Books Championship in Raleigh, NC on Friday, May 5.
The school’s Media Specialist, Gretchen Nash said, “We also went last year to the state championship. Before 2016, no one from our county had ever made it that far. Incredible group of kids, mostly 8th graders, with minds like steel traps.”
The Battle of the Books team, consisting mostly of eighth graders, will answer questions from the assigned readings against other North Carolina middle school students, and could potentially be the first team in the county to win the event.
Owen Deen is an either grader at Noble Middle School, and has earned a place on the North Carolina MathCounts competition team. Deen is part of a four-person team, comprised of North Carolina middle schoolers who qualified through a state level competition.
The national showdown will take place in Orlando, Florida from May 13, 2017- May 16, 2017. Only 224 final Mathletes from 50 U.S. states, U.S. territories, State Department schools and Department of Defense schools have earned the opportunity to compete at the national level.
“We are so proud to have one of our very own competing!” said Maureen Meehan, an educational specialist at NMS.
