Math Jeopardy team wins sectional tournament for second consecutive year

The GCSU Math Jeopardy team won its sectional tournament for the third time in four years, including two years in a row, May 27 at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Southeastern Section Meeting. 

A total of 26 teams from 19 different colleges and universities competed at the tournament held at the University of North Alabama. 

Georgia College had two teams compete this year, but they faced each other in the first round. The winning team consisted of senior Anna Marti, juniors Anna Kroll and Ashton Mullendore and sophomore Jonas Barfield (bottom photo). Junior Peyton Burch and sophomores Eni Bashua and Hudson McCullough made up the other team (inset photo).  

As a senior, Marti was part of the team for all three of GCSU’s tournament victories. While she was disappointed that the group had to split and compete head-to-head this year, she was glad to represent the Department of Mathematics in yet another win. 

“It makes me proud that our school won in a competition that included many great math programs; it is evidence that GCSU's math department has something special to offer,” Marti said. 

Dr. Rachel Epstein is a co-advisor for the Math Club, and she says she is incredibly proud of the way the students prepared and performed.  

“It really shows how well the Department of Mathematics has prepared our students in a wide variety of subjects,” Epstein said. “It shows that our students are good at trying different methods and coming up with creative answers, which is something really valued in our courses.” 

As Georgia’s public liberal arts university, GCSU is committed to teaching its students to think critically, solve complex problems and develop other workforce-ready tools.  

“Math is fundamental to the liberal arts. In fact, arithmetic, geometry and logic are three of the seven traditional liberal arts subjects in the Trivium and Quadrivium,” Marti said. “Especially in a society that is scared of math, we need to highlight that the challenges in studying math are surmountable.”