AUGUSTA — Tuesday, April 1, more than 800 high school students gathered in the Augusta Civic Center this week to compete in the 46th Annual Maine State Math Meet. Students from all over Maine, from York to Presque Isle and from Bethel to Machias, raised their pencils and solve some problems. 

The Maine State Math Meet is the largest high school mathematics competition in Maine. This year, 88 high schools competed. Academic competitions, while somewhat rare compared to athletic competitions, focus on logic, critical thinking, and mastery of the subjects at hand. ‘Matheletes’, as competitors are often called, work individually and as a team to solve a series of math problems covering a wide range of topics in Arithmetic, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus. It’s a race against the clock to prove your math knowledge and your ability to think outside the box.

The 46th Annual Maine State Math Meet was dedicated to the memory of Peter Gilchrist, a long-time math team coach from Boothbay and a problem writer, who actually penned the math problems for this math competition prior to his death in 2024. Maine State Math Meet Co-Chair Brian Twitchell spoke fondly of Gilchrist as he addressed the students before the competition went underway. 

“Peter [Gilchrist] was a master at crafting challenging, thought-provoking problems. Though he never taught in a classroom, he inspired hundreds of students over his career. And for those of us who had the honor of coaching against him, he set a very high standard,” said Twitchell. “So today, if you come across a problem you really enjoy, take a moment to think of Peter Gilchrist. And who knows? Maybe 20 years from now, another Maine math student will be solving that very same problem while preparing for the 2045 Maine State Math Meet—keeping Peter’s legacy alive.”

This year, the top-scoring school at the Maine State Math Meet was Falmouth, with a total of 604 points. The top scoring students, whose points were only calculated during the individual rounds and not the team competition, were Audrey Alberts from Cape Elizabeth and Indigo Selinger from Brunswick. Alberts and Selinger, who are both juniors in high school, scored ‘perfect’ meets with a total of 72 points each, and tied for first place overall.

For more information on the meet, to see student and school scores and ranking, and to view this year’s problems, please visit www.mainestatemathmeet.net.

The Maine State Math Meet is hosted by the Maine Association of Math Leagues (MAML) and co-chaired by Carl Robbins (Bangor High School) and Brian Twitchell (SAD 44). For more information on MAML, please visit www.maml.net