Fairfield Warde math team takes top honors in NE competition

Fairfield Warde High School's math team capped a successful season this spring by taking top honors among Connecticut schools at the New England Association Math League competition in Canton, Mass.

After the New England contest, three Warde mathematicians competed for a Connecticut team at Penn State University the weekend of June 1 and 2, finishing in the top half among 78 teams from around the country, according to the team's coach, Sandy Naughton.

Warde last year qualified for the New England competition for the first time in 25 years and built on that success this year.

The team finished second in the 24-team Fairfield County Math League and second among medium-sized schools in statewide competition.

At the New England competition, Warde finished fifth among 18 teams in the large-school division. It outscored seven other Connecticut teams, including Greenwich, Staples and New Canaan high schools, Naughton said.

"We did very well at what is a grueling competition," she said.

Warde seniors Oliver Sawin and Kei Nishimura-Gasparian earned awards for their scores in individual rounds. Sawin had a perfect score of 18 points, while Kei Nishimura-Gasparian scored 15 of 18 points.

That pair and teammate Keelan Cosgrove were selected for the American Regional Math League competition and went to Penn State. It was Nishimura-Gasparian's fourth trip to the competition, Sawin's third and Cosgrove's first., Naughton said.

Separately, Nishimura-Gasparian was ranked in the top 270 students nationally in the American Invitational Math Exam, Naughton said.