PSHS wins prestigious math tourney 3 years in a row, keeps 'immortality trophy'

MANILA, Philippines - Three math whiz kids from the Philippine Science High School-Main Campus, Quezon City has won the honor for the premier state science high school to keep the prestigious trophy of the MATHirang MATHibay tournament in their school for good.

Kenneth Co, Marco Karaan and Amiel Sy had bagged the championship of the tournament, organized by the University of the Philippines (UP) Mathematics Majors’ Circle, for PSHS-Main for the third consecutive year over the weekend, giving their school the honor of keeping the prestigious “Immortality Trophy” permanently.

Aside from winning the honor of keeping the trophy, Co, Karaan and Sy also received gold medals and P15,000 in cash for winning the 23rd MATHirang MATHibay last week.

When the competition started 23 years ago, the UP Math Majors’ Circle had vowed that the school that wins the championship for three consecutive years will get to keep the Immortality Trophy. Never in 23 years had any school done it three consecutive years or even a consecutive win.

In 2009’s 22nd MATHirang MATHibay, Philippine Science students Amiel Sy, Emil Tan and Iman Encarnacion won first place.

The year before during the 21st MATHirang MATHibay, Philippine Science students Diane Oliveros, Benetta Branzuela and Arvin Alba were the champions.

The coach of the winning trio, Philippine Science head Math Coach Fortunato “Sir Nat” Tacuboy III, has expressed pride over the school’s feat, saying the consistency of excellence is a tradition that Philippine Science was proud of.

The MATHirang MATHibay is known as a mental endurance math contest because of the six rounds of eliminations contestants have to undergo from morning until contest ends at 7:30 p.m.

Last Nov. 27, more than 60 teams from more than 30 schools joined the tournament.

The final six teams included the best high school mathletes from: Ateneo High School, UNO High School, Chiang Kai Shek College, Grace Christian College, St. Jude Catholic School and Philippine Science High School. First place went to Phil Science, 2nd to St. Jude and 3rd to UNO High School.