For the past five years, the Wayland High School Math Team has received several recognitions for their performance. This year, the Math Team continued their streak of success through winning the New England and state meets in the medium school division. According to members of the Math Team, a lot of work goes into preparing for the meets throughout the year, which plays a large role in the success of the Math Team.

The Math Team is composed of students from all four grades who each contribute to the team in different ways. Some of the current students have been on the team for multiple years and have been building upon successes from the prior year.

“I’ve been a part of [Math Team] since freshman year,” junior Ayush Kumar said. “Every year that the seniors leave, the team is slightly different, but I feel like we’re still pretty similar at the core.”

A key part of the Math Team is being able to solve complicated problems and work together to create an uplifting environment. According to team members, the Wayland team is generally more positive and accepting of mistakes than other teams, which benefits them during meets.

“I think a big part of our team is that we create a really supportive environment,” Kumar said. “We’re not the type of team that will blame someone for getting a problem wrong, we all go into meets and try our best.”

When math teacher Hannah Marton took over as the Math Team adviser, she knew that she wanted the team to be a place for students to have fun while also furthering their math skills.

“What I see in meets is that many teams from other schools are very competitive and have a lot of nastiness and cutthroat behavior,” Marton said. “If we win, that’s great, but I really want it to be a safe space.”

In preparation for meets, Marton and the Math Team captains replicate past meets. According to Marton, practice is a crucial part of the math team and is what gets them so far during competitions.

“I have amazing captains who run a lot of things,” Marton said. “The captains decide who is going to participate in which round and what else they want the team to practice.”

After winning the state meet, Marton is proud of the Math Team’s work. Marton hopes to continue to facilitate a fun and supportive environment within the Math Team.

“When we won states there were a lot of flyers hung around the school,” junior Brendan Shen said. “I was surprised by that and it was really cool to see the team be celebrated”