The Pike Liberal Arts Middle School Math Team won overall first place in the middle school competition of the Alabama Independent School Association’s District V Middle and High School Math Competition held at Cattleman Park Tuesday. With the win, the middle school team will have the honor of competing in the upcoming AISA State Math Competition.

The schools that competed were PLAS, Houston Academy, Lakeside School, Abbeville Christian, Northside Methodist and Crenshaw Christian.

Team members are Kase Chirico, Drew Nelson, K.C. Bradford, Cathy Stockstill, Mollie Jordan, Ensley Eakes and Donna Chen.

The overall high scorer for the Middle School Competition was Donna Chen of PLAS. She scored 43 of the possible 50 points.

“The test had algebra, some geometry and word problems,” Donna said. “The word problems were the hardest part of the test because of the round about away of presenting the problems.”

Donna said all team members are good math students and had looked forward to the competition.

“We are all competitive and want to do the best we can,” she said. “We were excited to compete and to win.”

Becky Baggett, PLAS headmaster, said the school’s high school math team took third place honors in the district competition. Houston Academy won the competition and Lakeside took second place. PLAS high school math team members are Chip Faircloth, Eden Hipps, Bryant Hussey, Caroline Kirk, Evie Pierce and Hailey Sasser.

“Both teams represented Pike Liberal Arts well and we congratulate them on their performances,” Baggett said. “There were a lot of really tough problems on the tests and the teams did an awesome job.”

Baggett said the math teams are made up of bright and highly motivated students.

“They are also very competitive,” she said. “They compete to be on the math teams and, once on the teams, they work extremely hard to prepare for the competitions. It is really rewarding for them to win.”

As math team members, the students have opportunities to met students from other schools and form lasting friendships.

“We have had members of the math teams that became friends with math team students from other schools and went on to room with them in college,” Baggett said. “So, being on the math team offers the students many benefits and rewards.”