Forty-nine students from six area schools squared off in the 2023 Challenge-24 Mathematics Contest held Saturday, March 18, at St. Bonaventure University.

The contest is hosted each year by the university’s Department of Mathematics and is directed by Angela Castle and Christine Uhl. The participating schools were Allegany-Limestone Middle School, Hinsdale Central School, Olean Intermediate-Middle School, The Learning Center (Bradford), East View Elementary (Olean), and Washington West Elementary (Olean).

Challenge-24 is a game in which contestants are presented with four numbers between 1 and 9. The object is to combine the numbers, using each number exactly once, to produce an answer of 24. Any of the standard arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) may be used as needed, perhaps more than once, to get the result.

Medals and $1,000 scholarships to St. Bonaventure University were awarded to the first-, second-, and third-place students in each grade. They were:

• Third grade
  • First Place: Jacob Dunmire (East View Olean)
  • Second Place: Anvitha Balineni (Washington West)
  • Third Place: Jacob Moses (Hinsdale Central School)

• Fourth grade
  • First Place: Mya Goodling (Hinsdale Central School)
  • Second Place: Aadhav Rajaramanathan (Olean Intermediate MS)
  • Third Place: Avery Vosler (Hinsdale Central School)
• Fifth grade
  • First Place: Elan Thach (Olean Intermediate MS)
  • Second Place: Owen Talbot (Olean Intermediate MS)
  • Third Place: Grant Perry (Olean Intermediate MS)
• Sixth grade
  • First Place: Ella Moses (Hinsdale Central School)
  • Second Place: Jenna Goodling (Hinsdale Central School)
  • Third Place: Jack Keim (Hinsdale Central School)
• Seventh grade
  • First Place: Sushanth Kondur (Allegany-Limestone Middle School)
  • Second Place: Brian Bergstrom (Hinsdale Central School)
  • Third Place: Zynah Rafi (Olean Intermediate MS)

For more about the 24 Game and St. Bonaventure’s Challenge 24 Competition, visit www.sbu.edu/challenge24.