The article below originally appeared in the Belmont Patch and is being reprinted with permission.

A team of 22 College of San Mateo (CSM) math students placed 6th of 189 colleges in a nationwide Math League competition held this past fall. In addition, CSM’s team placed 4th out of 49 participating colleges within the Western region which covers California and Nevada. The annual Math League competition is hosted by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges. Several thousand students participated in the fall round.

Two CSM students placed very high in the individual competition – Sammy Zhang was 13th overall and 6th in the West and Tong Zhu placed 19th overall and 8th in the West. Zhang is a 14-year old from Carlmont High School in Belmont who is concurrently enrolled in math classes at CSM.

Math League competition is held at each participating college and, at CSM, is coordinated by math professors Robert Hasson, Mel Hom and Jay Lehman. The college has hosted the exam for CSM students every year since 2000. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Rosalie O’Mahoney provides monetary prizes for three students who achieve the highest scores which is administered through the SMCCC Foundation. CSM will continue to compete in the spring 2015 round of Math League.