In what might be getting to be a habit, the Boothbay Region High School math team repeated as the first place team in the small school division of the Central Maine Math League (CMML) during the final conference meet of the 2021-2022 season at Cony High School in Augusta on Wednesday, March 9.

Once again, Boothbay needed to come from behind. During the course of the 5-meet season, the team members found themselves well behind leader Carrabec High School and second place Hall-Dale High School. But with tenacity and no small amount of determination, they fought their way back and went into the final meet in second place, trailing Carrabec by only four points. Round by round of meet 5, the two teams traded leads until ultimately the Boothbay team prevailed by a scant 7 points, 482-475. Until the awards were announced after the many rounds, nobody from either school knew who had won.

The CMML includes 23 high schools throughout Central Maine of which eight are in the small school division. Boothbay has been a perennial trophy winner over the past 27 years, nearly always garnering one of the top three spots.

This year’s 1st place trophy has duly been added to the burgeoning collection that adorns the walls of teacher Ben Powell’s classroom at BRHS.

Representing Boothbay at the Cony meet were 8th grader Abby Orchard; juniors Rachel Barter, Sydney Blake, Ryan Clark, Gryffin Kristan and Eric Maki; and seniors Grace Campbell, Kayla Cohen, Della Hahn, Lucas Hardwick and Emme Harris. Also competing this year and scoring points for the team were 8th grader Julian Deliso and freshmen Eddie Carpenter, Zoe Curtis and Maddie Orchard.

Additionally, Rachel Barter won a personal trophy for being the 4th best scorer among the juniors at all 23 of the CMML schools. Barter was the highest scoring individual for the whole year on the Boothbay team, followed by Emme Harris, Ryan Clark, Kayla Cohen and Gryffin Kristan.

The Seahawks next travel to Spruce Mountain High School in Jay, Maine, for the Mountain Valley tournament on March 16.

The purpose of the high school math team at BRHS is to bolster the mathematical education of the students in a challenging yet fun and pressure-free environment involving competitions. Team meetings and competitions occur from

September until April, the team meets every Wednesday throughout the school year to practice, compete against other schools, do some mathematical or general trivia, and enjoy a treat. The math subjects covered run the gamut of the high school curriculum, from number theory through algebra and geometry — but also such tangential subjects as matrix algebra, trig, logs, conics, statistics, and probability. Participation is voluntary and the students give up some of their personal time to participate and represent the school and themselves.

Coaches Peter and Nancy Gilchrist express their full gratitude to the students themselves for their skill and effort, to the high school faculty for the excellent training they afford our students, to the school administration for their support, and to the families and community for raising such fine representatives of our towns.