The OHS Math League team  is a part of the Minnesota State High School Mathematics League. The MSHSML is a premier high school mathematics league in the state of Minnesota. The league holds five statewide tournaments from November to February, as well as the state tournament in March.

Owatonna has been a chartered member of the math league it was established in the early 1980’s. OHS mathematics teacher and adviser, Mr. Steve Benson, has been advising the math league since 1999. Mr. Benson said, “Coaching the math league is fantastic. I get to work with great young people and get to see a lot of students doing better work in math than I can. They are some high powered thinkers.”

Scoring at a meet is done by each competitor choosing to compete in two individual events. Each school chooses their top eight members, including at least two students below eleventh grade, as the varsity team. Each individual event contains one, one point question and three, two point questions.The maximum a person may score per meet is 14 points. A teams total score is determined by adding the individual scores of the varsity members and the varsity team score. At the end of the season, the teams with the highest scores in the state continue onto the state tournament.

The OHS Math League team practices every Monday after school. Their first meet was on Monday, Nov. 5 at Rochester Century, where they placed fourth and their most recent meet was on Monday, Nov. 26 at Rochester John Marshall, where they got fourth place again. Senior captain, Jacob Pfeifer, has been in math league since seventh grade. Pfeifer said, “Math League has been a great experience for me. This has made my math skills improve greatly. It also has helped me prepare for my math tests to make them easy.”  His four year journey has helped him grow from a math aspect and as a person.

The team’s next upcoming meet is on Monday, Dec. 17 at Rochester John Marshall at 4:00 p.m.