J.S. Morton High School District 201 is on pace to reach new heights in the Illinois Math League competitions. As the second half of the season begins, Morton’s Freshmen Center students are ranked 19th in the state with Morton East comfortably sitting in second place in the Cook West division. Morton West is not far behind in fourth place.
“Students love taking the IML contests,” said Mathew Horvath, a Morton East math teacher. “They enjoy the challenge of the problems. They run from their 6th period class to my room to get started right away.”
Among the top-scoring “mathletes” are Morton East junior Jesus Solis and senior Daniel Salas. Barb Kane, one of the coaches for Morton 201’s IML teams, said the students have been excelling in competition this year. Both were All-Conference last year and qualified for state competition.
The growth in competitiveness for the school district can really be seen in the past two years. Throughout the history of competitive math, Morton East has seen seven perfect scores. Solis earned three of them in last year’s IML contests and Sala nabbed the first of what the school hope will be several aces on Nov. 12.
“Don’t give up. Keep trying to learn,” said Solis when talking about overcoming challenges with math.
IML high school competitions include a set of six contests timed at 30 minutes each. Students of all grade levels complete short answers to the complicated problems. The two high schools compete against Fenwick, Guerin College Prep and Leyden in the Cook West division. Three matches remain for the teams, not including the Lemont Invite and ICTM Regionals in February, the West Suburban Conference competition in April, and the state tournament in May.
