Wednesday March 5 at SM East, seniors Adam Moon, Nick Porter and Jeremy Muller were presented trophies for their second place finish in the 2011-2012 mathletics season.

“Winning second place was a great sense of pride, especially after three years without placement,” Porter said. “I’m just glad to have some placement after all these years.”

Mathletics is a mathematics competition where teams consisting of three members compete against one another in a series of 12 questions varying in difficulty. Each of the questions is worth a set number of points with an end total of 24 points at each of the meets. The competitions are held at each of the five Shawnee Mission High Schools, with the first four being regular competition and the fifth being a “regional” competition in which points are not awarded.

“I’m not sure how many points we actually earned, but it was enough to get me a trophy and that is all that matters to me,” Moon said.

Participation was important to Porter.

“I have been competing in mathletics since the fourth grade and have hardly missed a competition since,” Porter said.

Muller, Porter and Moon all left school every day before seventh block to commute to SM West to take the  math class, Differential Equations.

“Differential Equations is far above the skills needed in mathletics,” Moon said. “[In mathletics,] the problems we are asked are based on Algebra and Geometry skills that we have not reviewed in almost four years.”

Apart from their victory, the three seniors could agree that the social aspect of mathletics made their experience special.

“Getting to compete for North with my team has been my favorite part of mathletics,” Moon said. “Along with interacting with the competitors from the other schools.”