St. Jude Catholic School sophomore is new national Sudoku champ

MANILA, Philippines—Girls ruled the just-ended 2012 Philippine Sudoku Super Challenge (PSSC) championships, where a total of 6,412 elementary and high school students, as well as some professionals, competed in the sixth edition of the annual contest.

Ma. Czarina Angela Lao, a sophomore student of St. Jude Catholic School in Manila, is the country’s new Sudoku champion.

Lao, 15, and a mainstay of the national mathematics team, topped the finals of the PSSC Grandmasters division, held on Saturday at the SM City-North EDSA mall in Quezon City.

She scored a total of 1,896.2 points from six rounds in the daylong competition, according to Dr. Simon Chua, president of the nongovernment organization Mathematics Trainers’ Guild-Philippines, which co-sponsored the contest with SM.

Alvin Ian Chan of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, and Kaye Janelle Yao of the Grace Christian College, also in Quezon City, placed second and third with scores of 1,707.3 and 1,600.1, respectively.

Aside from trophies, Lao, Chan and Yao took home cash prizes of P60,00, P40,000 and P20,000.

In this year’s Wizard division, Dielle Tio from St. Stephen’s High School in Manila placed first.

Tio, 15, and a third year high school student, won P50,000 and a trophy.

Melvin Baldrias from the D. Canlao Agoncillo National High School in Calaca, Batangas, and Ethan Riley Chan from Zamboanga Chong Hua High School in Zamboanga City took the second and third places. They took home P30,000 and P20,000, respectively.

In the Whiz Kids division, Natalia Beatrice Dy from the St. John Institute in Bacolod City emerged champion.

Dy, 11 and a Grade 5 student, won a cash prize of P20,000 plus a trophy.

She was followed by Candice Renee Solidarios from the Integrated Montessori Center of Laguna and Guineveve Soria from the Precious International School in Davao City. Aside from trophies, they also took home cash prizes of P10,000 and P5,000, respectively.