On Saturday, April 18, the LFA Math Team traveled to Normal, Illinois to attend the 2026 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) State Finals at Illinois State University.

All members on the team qualified for the state competition after winning the regional contest in February as a school, coming in second place statewide in its division for the second straight year. LFA looked to reclaim the division title that they won in 2023 and 2024 before coming in third in 2025.

The competition was into 10 separate events — four individual contests (in Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus), three two-person teams (Oral Presentation, Freshman-Sophomore and Junior-Senior) and three eight-person teams (Calculator, Freshman-Sophomore and Junior-Senior).

After the opening ceremony concluded, all team members split up to go to their individual contests: freshmen to Algebra I, sophomores to Geometry, juniors to Algebra II and seniors to Pre-Calculus. The individual contests are the most technically difficult, as the material and difficulty level ramps up from the regional contests and can change from year-to-year depending on the balance of scores that the ICTM wants to achieve.

Bailey Swhier ‘29, who took the Algebra I test, said, “It is kind of intimidating to walk into the room for the first time and see everyone in there, but once the contest starts, you just focus, everything else fades into the background.”

After the individual contests ended, the team regrouped as the eight-person competitions began with staggered start times. The eight-person events all contain 20 questions and a time limit of just 20 minutes, making cooperation especially important. “Since there’s a lack of time for everyone to look at the individual questions, communication and time management is crucial,” said Luke Lee ‘27, a member of the junior-senior eight person team.

Last in the day were the two-person events — except for the oral presentation contest, which actually began during the opening ceremony and was staggered throughout the day.

Both the freshman-sophomore and junior-senior two-person events were divided into the main contest and the demonstration round, wherein the top four teams would compete in a head-to-head time-limit format to determine final placing (though not points) right before the awards ceremony, in front of every school in the division.

“[Competing in front of] the awards ceremony is [less pressure] for me… it is just the top four teams, though there is still pressure walking up in front of everybody. In the normal competition, there is a lot of pressure to get into the top four and represent your school. At the awards ceremony, you’re in front of your classmates… it was more enjoyable,” Juhyung Jo ‘27, Math Team captain and member of the junior-senior two-person team, said. “It made me nervous, compared to the normal [events]… you are up in front of everyone, and they announce the score out loud. For me and my teammate [Juhyung] Jo, it went pretty well,” Anna Zhu ‘27 added.

Immediately after the two-person demonstration rounds ended, the awards ceremony begun. Taeyeon Min ‘29 and Lucy Qian ‘29 placed within the top four individually for the Algebra I contest, while Jo placed third in Algebra II. The team collectively finished fourth in Algebra I, second in Algebra II and fifth in Pre-Calculus. Both the freshman-sophomore and junior-senior two-person teams claimed demonstration silver, while the oral presentation team placed fourth. The junior-senior eight-person team also finished in fourth place, while the freshman-sophomore eight-person team collected LFA’s only gold medal of the state contest.

Overall, the team finished third in Division 2A. “They have been working hard all year long — not just preparing for this competition but doing national and global competitions throughout the year,” said Math Team advisor Angela Orr. “I am really proud of them all.”