For most people, academics at McKinleyville High School ends when the final bell rings at 3:15; however, there are a select few who go above and beyond.

Nine MHS students met at HSU Saturday, April 5, to compete in the annual Redwood Empire Math Tournament and an additional six students took an extra test during school on April 10 for a competition titled Trigstar.

“(For the Redwood Empire Math Tournament) they gave you a piece of paper for your testing schedule and then you take two tests, go to lunch, and after lunch, you have one more test,” Brian Middaugh, junior, informed.
The tests were 50 minutes each and included a computations, logic test and geometry tests. It was a countywide competition.

“For most students it’s an opportunity to see people they haven’t seen in years,” MHS Math Department Chairperson Camila Barrett explained. “But it’s a fun way to test your abilities against kids around the county.”

MHS doesn’t have a math team like most schools, and it was lacking sophomore representation because most 10th-graders were on the AP European history trip, but even with these setbacks, the school was still successful.

Mack High walked away with three students who placed: Taylor Mott, a senior, took third along with Jacob Ammon, a freshmen; and Middaugh placed fifth.

“I did it because I was encouraged by Barrett to take it, and I just wanted to see how I would do,” Mott explained.

The students who are chosen to participate had to be at HSU by 9:30 a.m. and were there until 2 p.m.

“Students are identified by teachers and asked to participate,” Barrett explained. “Not always ‘A’ students are chosen; we pick who we think are good at problem-solving.”

Trigstar was a single test during a math period and was taken at school.

“It was put on by (the California Land Surveyors Association) and the test was trigonometry mostly,” Alex Bairrington, a senior, said. “It was to demonstrate your knowledge of trigonometry in a situation a surveyor would have.”

This was a competition between MHS students only, and there were cash prizes for the top three scorers.

Out of the six competitors, Bairrington took first place and won $300, Antonio Faulks, senior, received $150, and Mott got $75.

“It definitely made me remember some of the stuff I had forgotten from last year because we had to go back and remember all of the formulas we had forgotten,” Bairrington explained.

MHS has been participating in the Redwood Empire Math Tournament for over six years, and Trigstar for two, and it is bound to continue with perhaps a math team of their own next year.