One Cathedral team as well as a student participating as an individual earned recognition at the Franklin College Math Day on Nov. 23.

The school was represented by two groups, with the team of senior Liam Gallagher, junior William Teasley and senior Jarret Frank; and the team of freshman Liam Eifert, senior Henry Eifert and senior Nicholas Grill.

When the team competition was finished, six participants were randomly selected to compete in a  “Jeopardy”-style game (“So You Think You Know Math”). At the ensuing awards ceremony, the team of Eifert, Eifert, and Grill won first place in the team competition, and Liam Eifert also won second place in the game show competition.

The competition consisted of a variety of math challenges followed by a competition in which three-person teams attempted to solve six challenging problems over a two-hour period. In total, there were 47 three-person teams, representing Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers, Center Grove, Zionsville and Whiteland high schools, among others.

Math teacher Mrs. Lisa Ford, who chaperoned the event and helped organize the teams, was quick to praise the winning efforts of those students. “The math department is so proud of all of them for their commitment, enthusiasm, courage and incredible problem-solving skills,” she wrote in an email. “Our team was small, but mighty, and in the end, it was quality, not quantity that won the day.”

Grill said he was excited to achieve this success with his classmates. “I want to thank Mrs. Ford for the opportunity to let all of us compete, because it was a great experience,” he said. “I loved being able to not only work out different math problems, but being able to do that with a team. In the end, we managed to win by only one point, and the whole team was ecstatic.”

His teammate, Henry Eifert, was equally excited. “The problems were interesting and there were lots of puzzles to mess with before the competition. Having a coffee bar was also a nice touch,” he said. “Seeing the number of teams we were competing against, none of us expected we’d win, so it was pretty exciting to find out we placed first.”