By Allen Hamrick
During the month of February, Clay County students from elementary, middle and high school, grades 4 through 12, competed for the honor of representing their school and county at the Regional Math Field Day for Boone, Clay, Kanawha, and Putnam counties being held on February 25, 2025, on the campus of the University of Charleston. With a written test, mental math exercises, an estimation computation event and physical estimation stations, students showed off their math skills and earned bragging rights as the best math students that Clay County has to offer. These boys and girls put a lot of thought and expertise on the table to bring home the trophy and to take it the next level.
This year, the annual Hugh Boggs Math Competition was held in conjunction with Clay County Math Field Day. Each year, this event is held for third, fourth and fifth grade students as a tribute to the late Clay County educator Hugh Boggs. This is a competition where students complete the arithmetic tasks mentally and must ring the buzzer before their opponents have the chance to answer. For the Hugh Boggs Math Field Day event, winners are as follows: Third grade: Tessa Kiser, 1st place, Clay Elementary, Owen Paxton, 2nd place, Big Otter Elementary, and Katherine Hanshaw, 3rd place, Big Otter Elementary; Fourth grade: Jeremiah Davis, 1st place, Clay Elementary, Amber Ramsey, 2nd place, Clay Elementary, Emma Stephens, 3rd place, Big Otter Elementary; Fifth Grade: River Schoolcraft, 1st place, Clay Elementary, Paisley Adkins, 2nd place Big Otter Elementary, Trenton Gilbert, 3rd place, Big Otter Elementary. Congratulations to them all!
For Clay County Math Field Day, Fourth grade results are: 1st place Easton Leftwich, Clay Elementary, 2nd place Kinsley Duffield, Big Otter Elementary, 3rd place Iris Miller, Big Otter Elementary and Alternate Tripp Sears, Lizemore Elementary. Fifth grade results are: 1st place Christian Belt, Clay Elementary, 2nd place Amara Ramsey, Clay Elementary, 3rd place Lyla Titus, Big Otter Elementary and Alternate Jase Beck, Big Otter Elementary. Clay Middle School results are 6th grade 1st place Carson Brown, 2nd place Gage Taylor, 3rd place Lakeshia Davis; 7th grade 1st place Mikaila Childers, 2nd place Trenton Parker, 3rd place William Fields; 8th grade 1st place Adam Canfield, 2nd place Autumn Rapp, 3rd place Alex Jennings. Clay County High School will be represented by ninth graders Abigail Grandon, Jayda Woods and Brooke Cliver. The high school team for grades 10 – 12 was Evie Young, Elijah Paxton, Sophia Berberich, Easton Edwards, Luke Hill, Jaxon Brown, Avery Brouillard, Yusun Kwan, Keiara Asbury, and Alivia Gilliland,
Congratulations to these students for representing Clay County. Special recognition and extra kudos to Luke Hill for placing 7th in the high school level competition and Sophia Berberich for placing as an alternate in the high school level competition. Luke will represent Clay County and the Boone, Clay, Kanawha and Putnam region at the state math field day event on April 12 at West Virginia State University at Institute.