The Mill’s varsity Math Team brought home a first-place win and three individual medals at the Luella Mathematics Competition on Oct. 15.

“It felt great to finish first for the team and get fourth place individually out of all the competitors,” senior varsity member Joshua Tysor said. “I plan on becoming an engineer, and engineering requires a lot of math, so Math Team has definitely helped me prepare for the future.”

In previous years, Starr’s Mill has generally placed in the top three at Luella. This year, the competition adopted a new grouping system that divided schools into two divisions.

“The North and South Division was something new this year,” Math Team coach J.B. Campbell said. “It was great to take home first for varsity, and any time we win over McIntosh, it’s like winning first place.”

According to Campbell, the team would have placed fifth or sixth had it been in the northern region. For the individual varsity medal recipients, Tysor received fourth and senior J.C. Talbott placed 10th overall. Sophomore Jay Yao placed seventh overall for junior varsity.

“Our group ciphering round was good enough to win because we only missed two out of 15 questions,” Talbott said. “Coming in first as a team was a little surprising but very exciting.”

Prior to attending Luella, the Math Team’s first competition was at the Rockdale Magnet School  on Sept. 24. Both the junior varsity and varsity teams placed third in the Small School Division, and Yao took home a school individual winner medal. A total of 118 schools competed in the 12th annual mathematics competition.

“We’ve never placed at Rockdale before because we were lumped in with the magnet schools, charter schools and even some AAAAAA or AAAAAAA schools,” Campbell said. “It was a great tournament for some of our students to see some really difficult problems but still be able to come away with hardware.”

The team’s next competition is at Berry College on Nov. 10.