South’s math team recently won against GBN in their first competition of the year.

Team Captain Rohan Shah received a perfect score along with Co-captain Brad Lee. Shah said that the victory over GBN demonstrated their progress as a team.

“I know a lot of the people on the GBN math team, and they are very hard-working, dedicated and intelligent, so to beat them is a pretty big deal,” Shah said. “I think we benefited from having a very hard-working group this year that has a lot of potential, and we showed that potential at that contest.”

Elisa Kim, senior club member, accounts their success partly to the growth she has seen in the club since her freshman year.

“When I first started out, the club wasn’t as structured,” Kim said. “For example, we didn’t have summer practices, but we knew that…sophomore year, the topic was geometry. It is a topic that a lot of us struggle with. [Shah and Lee] came up with the idea to start summer practices. [The victory] is the proof that shows our progression throughout the years.”

According to Lee, the team’s progression can be seen in their increasing membership over the years. Lee joined freshman year and has continued on since then and said that the team is mostly relaxed and fun while practicing.

“I know that some of the most enjoyable times I’ve had at school or on school trips have happened at math team and with my friends there,” Shah said.

According to Ryan Sutherlin, math team sponsor, after their defeat of GBN the team is looking forward to performing well at Regionals and potentially moving on to achieving their goal of competing at State at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in May.