Submitted photo

Students from area schools duked it out at the annual Ward County Public and Private schools MATHCOUNTS competition on Feb. 4 at Minot State University.

Participants from grades 6-8 were drawn from local school competitions, with each school sending teams of four students and up to 12 students to compete at the county level.

Students competed individually and as teams in written and fast paced oral matches covering probability, statistics, algebra and geometry.

After the target and team rounds were complete, a countdown round commenced, which whittled down the top eight students who will represent Ward County at the State competition in Bismarck. The top eight students were Clara Zheng and Thomas Schiede of Erik Ramstad; Blake Altschuler and Jonus Jones from Our Redeemer’s Christian; Kalya Harris of Nedrose; Bryce Mullikin and Caden Wonderlick of Surrey and Sadie Hicks of Des Lacs-Burlington.

The top three finishing city teams were Ramstad, Jim Hill and Memorial; and the top three county teams were Our Redeemer’s Christian, Surrey and Des Lacs-Burlington.

The top three individuals from city schools were Zheng, Shiede and also Nat Langon of Memorial; the top three individuals from county schools were Jones, Hicks and Harris.