Middle school mathematicians from all over the state met in Norman Saturday for the State MathCounts Competition. Ninety-two students and coaches from 23 qualifying teams competed for the top spot and Norman's Whittier Middle School proved to be the best.

Members of the Whittier team are eighth-graders Jimmy Wu, captain; Alex Zhu; Amrith Ramkumar; and sixth-grader Steve Zhang. The team is coached by Whittier math teachers LeAnn Chastain, Terry Littlejohn, Jen White and Tony Zhao, a freshman at Norman North who was the state MathCounts champion in 2008.

Out of the 92 individuals competing Saturday, Wu finished second, Zhang sixth, Ramkumar 11th and Zhu 12th. These four high scores put the team in first place above the Jenks Middle School team, which finished second; Regent Preparatory School, third; and University School, fourth, all from the Tulsa area.

The top four individuals from Saturday's competition, along with Coach Chastain, will travel to Orlando later this spring to represent Oklahoma at the National MathCounts Competition. The final round of the National competition will be televised by ESPN and may be viewed live via webcast 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time May 8 at www.mathcounts.org.