The Buchholz High School math team has won its 13th national championship in record-breaking fashion.
Buchholz won top honors in the 2021 Mu Alpha Theta national competition, which was conducted in person at each of the participating schools, with all schools competing at the same time. The Buchholz team won the championship by more than 900 points, earning 7324 points.
The second-place team, American Heritage Plantation, earned 6418 points. Previously the biggest win margin was 459 points, also earned by Buchholz, in 2019.
The national competition is made up of 39 different events, with teams earning points based on their performance in each event. Buchholz students took first place in 31 of the 39, another competition record.
Buchholz head coach Will Frazer, who has guided the math team since its first national championship in 2007, credits the hard work of his students for their championship performance, especially during the pandemic. The 2020 competition was canceled due to COVID.
“While everyone else was hunkering down, our kids kept working crazy hard and persevered,” he said. “We’re already working on the coming year.”
The national win comes just three months after the Buchholz team took its 14th state championship, also by a record margin.
Buchholz students won a total of 255 trophies and certificates in this year’s national competition. The first-place awards include:
Theta division(Algebra 2 and Geometry)
Billy Yang-Circles & Polygons
Hailey Lin-Area & Volume
Richard Feng-Applications
Billy Yang-Equations & Inequalities
Hailey Lin-Analytic Geometry & Conics
Theta Individual-Hailey Lin
Theta Team-Hailey Lin, Billy Yang, Richard Feng, and Kailyn Zhai
Alpha Division(Pre-Calculus)
Daniel Wang-Math in Physics
Tucker Shea-Matrices & Vectors
Emmanuel Zheng-Trigonometry
Tucker Shea-Applications
Ahan Mishra-Equations & Inequalities
Daniel Wang-Analytic Geometry
Zach Xiao-Sequence & Series
Alpha Ciphering-Ahan Mishra
Alpha Individual-Daniel Wang
Alpha Team-Daniel Wang, Tucker Shea, Ahan Mishra, and Zach Xiao
Mu Division(Calculus)
Samuel Kim-BC Calculus
Kevin He-Limits & Derivatives
John Sin-Math in Physics
Kevin He-Applications
Erick Jiang-Combinatorics & Probability
Sean Han-Comprehensive
Jake Frazer and Samuel Kim-Integration (tie with perfect scores)
Sharay Gao-Area & Volume
Sam Antonyan-Sequence & Series
Mu Ciphering-Jake Frazer
Mu Individual-Kevin He
Mu Team-Kevin He, Sean Han, Nicholas Dang, and Samuel Kim
Open topics:
Chris Han—History of Math
Jeremy Griffin—Number Theory