While many HSMSE students may find the math they learn in school to be repetitive, easy, and sometimes downright boring, very few are aware of the simple solution to their wish for more interesting problems: math competitions! Competitive math is designed to require little knowledge beyond a tenth grade level, but much more ingenuity and creativity than what a standard high schooler possesses. In recent months, the HSMSE Math Team has sent our members to a few of these exciting competitions, in addition to having run our first-ever invitational. So here’s a look at what you may have missed:

On March 28, HSMSE sent two teams of six to SBIMC, or the South Brooklyn Mathematics Invitational. Our A Team (Linkai Shen (’29), Avery Flowers (’29), Samuel Bell (’28), Abigail Huang (’28), Jamie Chin (’26), and Matthew Katz (’26) placed fifth out of 24 teams in New York City, achieving a perfect score on the power round, where contestants are asked to solve eight problems about a specific topic.

On April 11, HSMSE A (Adrian Bessen-Benitez (’26), Avery Flowers, Dashiell Finer-Regn (’27), Leo Alexander (’28), and Tappan Wearn (’28)) won first place at the Trinity High School Math Competition, and secured the top three individual spots (Leo Alexander (first), Dashiell Finer-Regn (second), Adrian Bessen-Benitez (third)), all while being down a player. 

On April 18, HSMSE A (Arvin Persaud (’26), Avery Flowers, Kevin Chen (’28), Penelope Weinberger (’29), Samuel Bell (’28), Timothy Weinberger (’29)), secured second place at the Horace Mann Math Competition, as well as first place public school team in NYC. They were led by senior Arvin Persaud, who won first place overall, beating the second place winner 55 to 40 points! 

Additionally, HSMSE now has a whopping five kids on the NYC Math Team (Adrian Bessen-Benitez, Anna Keh (’27), Dashiell Finer-Regn, Leo Alexander, and Tappan Wearn), a roster that represents the top 65 kids in New York City at regional and national competitions. On April 18, we competed at NYSML, where captain Adrian Bessen-Benitez led NYC B to victory against Nassau A for the first time in three years! 

But perhaps the most exciting development in the history of the HSMSE Math Team is the first annual MSEI: the Math, Science and Engineering Invitational. We are one of only four high schools in NYC to host our own math competition, where 14 teams from NYC high schools competed as a team and individually in Baskerville Hall on April 25. The problems were written by Jayson Vu, as well as several students from the HSMSE Math Team, including Dashiell Finer-Regn, Adrian Bessen-Benitez, Leo Alexander, Anna Keh and Samuel Bell. 

We are very thankful to the HSMSE students who volunteered their time to organize and proctor teams for the competition. We could not have made MSEI possible without your help, and it will not go unrecognized. Running our very own competition classifies the HSMSE Math Team as a serious, competitive math team when just a few years ago, we were relatively unknown. As we wrap up the 2025–26 school year we set our sights on even bigger team and individual achievements. We hope that the next time you’re sitting in a math class, doing the same problems over and over again, bored to death, that you’ll want to pop into room 102 on a Wednesday after school and see if you’ve got what it takes to compete.