Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Several students at Lexington Traditional Magnet School have earned national recognition for their oustanding performance on the AMC-8 math exam in the fall.

Jessie Li (who missed only one question) and Will Walters scored in the top 1 percent nationally, while Hank Russell, Eric Xiong and Victoria Zachman scored in the top 5 percent.

These percentages are among students who take the exam, which itself represents an elite group of math achievers. So being in the top 1 percent, for example, means a student is one of the top 1,500 or so nationally.

As a whole, LTMS made the honor roll (for the top 1 percent of schools) for the fourth consecutive year. Nationally, this list included 249 schools, with one in Louisville as the only other Kentucky representative.

Among statewide highlights from LTMS:

• Jessie Li tied for the top score in Kentucky; two other eighth-graders also tallied 24 out of 25. Victoria Zachman tied for ninth place.
• Hank Russell was top-scoring seventh-grader, and Will Walters was the top-scoring sixth-grader (and tied for seventh place overall).  
• Seven of the top 10 sixth-grade scores were from LTMS (Will Walters, first; Eric Xiong, second; Alec Baron, tied for third; John Meyers, tied for third; Cody Leslie, tied for sixth; Jacob Pursifull, tied for eighth; and Matthew Thompson, tied for eighth).

Roughly 150,000 middle school students from dozens of countries take this American Mathematics Competitions exam each year; 128 kids from LTMS tackled it Nov. 18.

These LTMS sixth-graders made the AMC honor roll for scoring in the top 40 percent nationally among all students: Alec Baron, Elliott Beach, Samuel Beach, Wallace Duncan, Madison Ginn, Grace Goulson, Max Hirschowitz, Morgan Hopkins, Saba Khandani, Sara Khandani, Cody Leslie, Alice Li, Nima Mahmoodi, Vincent Maranville, John Meyers, Joseph Morganz, Ryan Norton, Shelby Oldfield, Ryan Owens, Jacob Pursifull, Michael Richie, Casey Stout, Trey Sturdivant, Matthew Thompson, Fumiya Tomotoshi, Will Walters, Ryan Welleford and Eric Xiong.

For more information, contact Keith Durham, the math team coach at LTMS.