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Springwood School dominated the Southern Union Math Competition earlier this month with 12 individual and team competitors placing in multiple categories.

“We’re all really passionate about math. And we love to compete because we’re all really competitive,” said Springwood student Brennan Plank. “We also wanted to represent the school, and we did that.”

Springwood’s math teams placed first in four team events and first in three individual events at the Southern Union Math Competition last Thursday. 

They also received second place in one team event and second place in four individual events.

The students competed against 19 other private and 1A-6A public schools. The Southern Union Math Competition is an annual event for students of local large and small schools. 

Each team or individual had to complete a 25-question multiple choice test and three ciphering problems. Suzanne Cook, a math teacher at Springwood who sponsors the math team, said this is only the second year for some of the students while many others have never competed in this competition before.

“They were really valuable in getting the others prepared for what to expect with how [the ciphering] worked,” Cook said. “So we now have some more information that we plan to continue and do very well next year.”

Ken Vu, a Springwood senior from the International program, participated last year. He said that experience helped him prepare better. 

“I was relieved because my team has worked really hard to get the first and second place,” Vu said. “I’m so proud of them.”

Plank added that none of them wanted to let their teammates down because they all worked hard. 

The competition offers top-scoring seniors a chance to win full-tuition scholarships. The two scholarships are for students who competed in Precalculus of Comprehensive and plan to attend Southern Union State Community College.

That’s why it meant so much to the students and their teachers to work together and represent their school well. Connor Moseley said he was grateful for the faculty’s support in the Springwood math program.

“Honestly, what made us win is just the teachers, they’re great,” Moseley said. “They get with us personally. They push us to be better. And it’s just a great math program.”

“There was a specific problem that my teacher showed me, and I was like, I’ve never seen one like it,” Jonas Camp added. “And then I saw one on the test, and I knew exactly how to do it so I was prepared.”

Out of 20 total teams, Springwood’s students won awards in multiple categories:

• Overall First Place Team Comprehensive: All Divisions: Haram Kim, Ethan Joo, Ken Vu and Kris Huynh
• First Place Team Comprehensive: Small school division
  •    Overall tournament High Scorer: Ethan Joo
  •    Overall tournament 2nd place: Kris Huynh
•  Overall First Place Precalculus Team
  •    All divisions: Brennan Plank, Kris Huynh, Keith Nguyen, Katie Hugyen and Hannah Troung
•  First Place Precalculus Team: Small School Division
•  First place Precalculus individual scorer: Keith Nguyen
•  Second place Precalculus individual scorer: Katie Huynh
•  First Place Geometry Team: Jonas Camp, Eva Lanier, Connor Moseley and Abram Shellman
•  Second Place Geometry individual scorer: Connor Moseley
•  Second Place Algebra 2 Team: Natalia Campano Quero, Sarah Nguyen, Cooper Key and Panos Pananis
•  Second Place Overall Algebra 1 individual scorer: Eric Chen
•  Second Place Overall High Scorer: Kris Huynh