Blaine students repeat first place finish at state math contest

For the third year in a row, Blaine high school mathletes have taken first place in one of the state competition’s categories.

The team of junior Kyle Teutsch, senior Brian Chang and sophomore Charles Chang bested all comers in topical problems at the contest hosted by Central Washington University in Ellensburg; the team of senior Justin Vinall, sophomore Wes Hubbard and freshman Brendan Mulholland took third in the same category.

For Teutsch, it has been a long road. “I’ve been on math teams since second grade,” he said. “Somehow, I have math intelligence.” Brian Chang said his attraction to math just made sense to him. “I wasn’t good at anything but math,” he said. “Math is more logical than any other subject, so it’s easier to follow.” The younger Chang said he got interested in the math team by following his brother’s example.

Brian Chang was part of Blaine’s first championship team with older brother Alvin two years ago, so passing the torch to Charles was a treat for him.

Another Borderite group that won accolades last weekend was the BHS Technology Student Association (TSA). Reinier De Jonge won first place in the promotional communication division at the Washington State TSA convention in Cheney for his video advertising the television class, while Ben Mallahan won second in the documentary category for his coverage of the Math Olympiad Blaine hosted March 31. James Ong took third place in promotional graphics.

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