LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., May 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Swapnil Garg of Sunnyvale, Calif., won the 2014 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS^® National Competition today at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The winning Mathlete^® answered the following math problem in 12 seconds to be crowned the National Champion:

Question: The smallest integer of a set of consecutive integers is -32. If the sum of these integers is 67, how many integers are in the set?
Answer: 67 (integers)

The 8th-grader from Cupertino Middle School competed among 224 middle school students in the prestigious competition, engaging the top middle school mathematics minds from across the country.

Garg was victorious in the intense, one-on-one Countdown Round, during which the 12 Mathletes with the highest written test scores competed for the title of 2014 National Champion. Garg answered all of the questions without putting pencil to paper. Kevin Liu from Carmel, Ind., won second-place in the Countdown Round with Alan Peng from Fenton, Mo., and Daniel Zhu from Potomac, Md., having advanced to the semi-finals.

In the team competition, California captured the title of First Place Team. Team members include Garg; Jeffery Li, Harvest Park Middle School; Rajiv Movva, The Harker School; Harry Wang, Raymond J. Fisher Middle School; and coach David Vaughn, from Carmel Valley Middle School. The Maryland state team took second place, and the Virginia team placed third.

"I want to congratulate the 2014 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition participants on all they have achieved," said William H. Swanson, Raytheon Chairman, and MATHCOUNTS honorary chairman. "These Mathletes represent our next generation of innovators, and I am impressed by their abilities and confidence at such a young age; they are truly inspiring."

"I congratulate all 224 of these outstanding competitors who have shown exceptional talent, passion and hard work throughout the entire MATHCOUNTS Competition Series," said Lou DiGioia, executive director of MATHCOUNTS. "Each and every student here should be incredibly proud of their remarkable achievements."

As National Champion, Garg won the $20,000 Donald Weinert College Scholarship and a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Liu won a $7,500 scholarship as the Countdown Round Runner-up and, in addition, a $2,500 scholarship as the Written Competition Champion. Semi-finalists Peng and Zhu each won a $3,000 scholarship. Additionally, each member of the winning team from California will receive a $2,000 scholarship and a trip to space camp.

The final 224 competitors represented all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and schools from the Departments of Defense and State. They prevailed in heart-pounding competitions involving some 100,000 students from more than 5,000 schools at the local and state level to earn the right to compete in Orlando.

About MATHCOUNTS
MATHCOUNTS is a nonprofit organization that strives to engage middle school students of all ability and interest levels in fun, challenging math programs, in order to expand their academic and professional opportunities. Middle school students exist at a critical juncture in which their love for mathematics must be nurtured, or their fear of mathematics must be overcome. For more than 30 years MATHCOUNTS has provided free, high-quality resources to educators and enriching, extracurricular opportunities to students to lay a foundation for future success. Materials and information are available at www.mathcounts.org.

About MathMovesU
Raytheon's MathMovesU^® program is an initiative committed to increasing middle and elementary school students' interest in math and science education by engaging them in hands-on, interactive activities. The innovative programs of MathMovesU include the traveling interactive experience MathAlive!^®; Raytheon's Sum of all Thrills™ experience at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot^®, which showcases math in action as students design and experience their own thrill ride using math fundamentals; the "In the Numbers" game, a partnership with the New England Patriots on display at The Hall at Patriot Place presented by Raytheon; the company's ongoing sponsorship of the MATHCOUNTS^® National Competition; and the MathMovesU scholarship and grant program. Follow MathMovesU and other Raytheon community outreach programs on Facebook and on Twitter @MathMovesU.

About Raytheon
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), with 2013 sales of $24 billion and 63,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 92 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as cyber security and a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.

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