Camden High School -

While many championships are won in the weight room, some are also won in the classroom.

On Saturday, April 5th, the Camden High School Mathletics team brought home the latter. In their season-ending home competition at Camden High School, the Blue Devils placed second for the day to put the finishing touches on the Central New York Mathletics League Division B Championship for the 2024-25 season.

The championship completes a logical ascent for the Blue Devils, who finished as the season runners-up a year ago.

Mathletics is a regional mathematics competition, with 13 schools across the area competing. The teams are split into two divisions. Camden competes against Canastota, Oriskany, Westmoreland, Remsen, and Stockbridge Valley as part of Division B. Division A consists of Clinton, Hamilton, Oneida, New Hartford, VVS, Whitesboro, and Utica Proctor.

At each meet, the top three teams in each division are designated as place winners, and an overall score is kept to determine a season champion. The season typically runs from September to February with a monthly competition, but this campaign was elongated by inclement weather.

Competitors participate in three different events on a competition day, and at no time are calculators permitted to be used. Competition begins with a 45 minute individual short answer test containing ten questions. The second event is a collaborative team-based problem generally involving five students. They are given 20 minutes to solve a longer, more complex question and are allowed to collaborate with their teammates to find the answer.

The final event is a relay. Each team is set in a row of five desks, and each chair is given a partial or finished question to complete. Only the first chair has a finished question. Every subsequent leg of the relay has a portion of their question missing, and they must get that portion from the previous leg to complete their work. Under this format, each completed problem effectively becomes the baton in the relay.

The teams participate in four relays that are five minutes each. On Saturday, Camden was a scoring competitor short, so Annaka Stauring did double duty as the third and fifth leg for each relay.

The team was led by seniors Stauring, Triston Foster, and Jacob Lago. Also competing were Sophia Seitz, Justin Melnick, and Damien Jaeger-Soullas. Lago and Jaeger-Soullas are not pictured here. The Blue Devils are coached by Christina Jackson and Kaylee Pietroski.