Kevin Chen of TX (National Champion) and Ben Kraft of PA (runner-up) in the finals of the Countdown Round. Photo courtesy of MATHCOUNTS.

Sugar Land's Kevin Chen answered his last math problem in 45 seconds to win the MATHCOUNTS National Championship title at the 2007 MATHCOUNTS National Competition on May 11 at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Kevin Chen was victorious in the intense, one-on-one oral Countdown Round where the top 12 Mathletes® competed for the title of MATHCOUNTS National Champion. Ben Kraft of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was awarded the second-place individual title with Wenyu Cao of Belle Mead, New Jersey, and Allen Yuan of Northville, Michigan, advancing to the Semi-finals.

Bobby Shen, Texas’ youngest ever MATHCOUNTS state champion, was awarded the 13th-place in his national debut.

Together, Kevin Chen and Bobby Shen led Texas team won the 2007 MATHCOUNTS National Team Championship title.

The Texas team members are

Texas 2007 MATHCOUNTS national champion team members, from left: Bobby Shen, Jeff Feng, Kevin Li, Kevin Chen, and team coach Jeffrey Boyd. Photo courtesy of Sharon Xie.

The Indiana team took second place, and the New Jersey team placed third.

A complete list of 2007 MATHCOUNTS national competition winners is here.

“Congratulations to each of these students on their amazing accomplishments,” said E. Bruce Lawson, Chairman of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. “These Mathletes, and all of their counterparts around the nation, deserve our praise and acknowledgement of their talent and dedication. MATHCOUNTS is honored to support the efforts of U.S. middle school students to develop strong mathematical abilities.”

The MATHCOUNTS National Competition teams, comprised of the four top scoring students in their respective state competition, represented all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Department of Defense and State Department schools worldwide.

“As sponsors of the Lockheed Martin 2007 MATHCOUNTS National Competition, we congratulate the winners and all the competitors,” said Bob Stevens, Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation. “The students who competed here achieved a great deal simply by reaching this level of competition. They have set a great example for their peers with all their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm. MATHCOUNTS is the first step for many of these students to becoming our engineers of tomorrow.”

As National Champion, Chen won the $8,000 Donald G. Weinert Scholarship, a trip to U.S. Space Camp and a notebook computer. Kraft won a $6,000 scholarship as 2nd Place Individual. Semi-finalists Cao and Yuan each won a $4,000 scholarship, and Chen’s coach, Jeff Boyd, received a notebook computer. Chen and Kraft each also won a full scholarship ($3,000) to attend the AwesomeMath Summer Program. Justin Ahmann of Indiana won an $8,000 scholarship as the Written Round Winner and Yuan also won a $6,000 scholarship as Written Round Runner-up. Ahmann and Velina Kozareva of South Carolina, the highest ranked sixth or seventh-grade male and female in the Written Round, each earned a full scholarship ($3,500) to attend the MathPath Summer Program.

Additionally, each team member from first-place Texas won a $2,000 scholarship, trips to U.S. Space Camp and a notebook computer.

Four of the top students participated in the Masters Round the morning of May 12 and gave a 15-minute oral presentation of their solution to a complex problem before a panel of three judges and more than 300 spectators with only 30 minutes to prepare. Adding to his earlier award, Chen won the Masters Round and received a $2,000 scholarship for this accomplishment.

Celebrating its 24th anniversary, MATHCOUNTS is a national mathematics enrichment, coaching and competition program open to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. Each year, more than 500,000 middle school students use free MATHCOUNTS materials in their schools to sharpen their math skills. Beyond the challenge of learning new skills, the MATHCOUNTS competition series (school, local, state and national) provides students with an added incentive to focus on mathematics. More than 6,300 schools registered students to participate in the MATHCOUNTS competition and vie for prizes, scholarships, bragging rights and the opportunity to advance to the Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS National Competition. Students of all abilities thoroughly enjoy the experience and develop the mathematical aptitude, self-confidence and teamwork skills to better prepare them for their future.