Freshman Connor Demmons and junior Ellie Demmons both won best in class trophies among all the students of their grade levels at the Mountain Valley Conference Math Meet Wednesday, March 25, at Carrabec High School in North Anson.

Connor’s 39 points earned him the third best score among the students of all grades at the meet, a remarkable accomplishment for a freshman. He out-paced the second place freshman by a solid 13 points.

Ellie’s 35 points earned her a tie for the fifth best score among all the students at the meet and a tie for the best score among juniors. She received the first place junior trophy at the discretion of the meet director.

As a team, the Seahawks were first among all schools on the six individual rounds, tied for first among all schools on the two relay rounds, and last among all schools on the two cooperative team rounds. Overall, they finished in fourth place. The total scores of the top five teams were Hall-Dale 259, Winthrop 255, Carrabec 254, Boothbay Region 241, and Monmouth 230.

Boothbay had the largest team at the Mountain Valley meet with 13 individuals. Other than Connor and Ellie, the following Boothbay competitors helped the team and finished in the indicated positions among all the students at the meet: senior David Machon, 8th, junior Gretchen Elder, 21st, sophomore Sam Betts, 23rd, senior Sinead Miller, 27th, freshman Kyle Alley, 33rd, junior Morgen Wilson, 39th, junior Angela Machon, 42nd, sophomore Angelique Perkins, 43rd, senior Eben Goodwin, 44th, junior Lisa Pawlowski, 51st, and senior Trystan Mercier, 52nd.

The Seahawk math team has been practicing and competing since the beginning of the school year last September. They finished the five-meet Central Maine Math League season a little ahead of the middle of the pack, participated in the American Math Competition in February, and will travel to the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on April 14 to compete in the Maine State Math meet against over 1,000 Maine high school students from virtually all the high schools statewide.

The state meet is a spectacle unto itself and is reputedly the second largest competitive gathering in one venue — athletic or academic — for high school students in the United States. There the Seahawks will compete against all the individual students at the meet and, as a team, against 25 other schools of similar size.

The purpose of the math team at BRHS is to supplement the regular classroom mathematics instruction of the students in order to bolster and strengthen mathematical knowledge and fortify the students for the challenges coming in future years, whether in college, at work, or in everyday life. Practices consist of review, drills, contests, and analysis of recent performance at competitions.

All the areas of high school mathematics are fair game at competitions, from rudimentary arithmetic through consumer math through algebra and geometry and ultimately to trigonometry and the traditional precalculus curricula. Every student is eligible and encouraged to join the team and compete at the various meets, with one exception. The Maine State math meet only allows 10 students per high school and Boothbay, like other high schools, selects those 10 who have accumulated the most points at meets throughout the seven-month season.

Coaches Peter and Nancy Gilchrist express their extreme gratitude to the teachers who have trained our students, to the families who nurtured them through all their years (and who pick them up at late hours after meets!), to the community for its support of the school system, and to the students themselves for all their efforts — and for being just exactly who they are.