COUNT THEM IN DESERT HIGH, HART HIGH SCORE IN MATH FIELD DAY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Desert High School at Edwards Air Force Base and Hart High School of Newhall took top honors Friday in Antelope Valley College's 24th Annual Math Field Day.

Hart High's three-person team of juniors and seniors won among large schools and Desert won among small schools, its 11th consecutive win in the small-school category.

For the second year in a row, the top individual scorer with 75 points was Hart High junior Will Kuykendall.

``You get a day away from school to try to challenge the mind and to try to figure out math problems,'' said Kuykendall, 17.

Students from 17 public and private high school competed for individual and team awards in timed math tests. The college has sponsored the event since 1981 to raise teens' interest in math.

Hart High's team members - Kuykendall, Anna Hiszpanski and Jane O - scored 183 out of a possible 300 points. Desert High School's junior and senior team members - Stefan Bock, Kaitlin Kirk, and Chris Simpson - scored 172 points.

Placing second in the large-school competition was Antelope Valley High School, whose team members - Alex Chin, Connor Paulson and Diane Santos - scored 158.

Antelope Valley High team members relished getting an award and exuded pride in their school, which had its administrators removed last year and is being monitored by state officials because of low standardized test scores.

``It was amazing. I was surprised. It was a hard, difficult test,'' said Santos, a 16-year-old junior. ``I'm happy for our school. It's kind of something new. A.V. can be the best in our district.''

``This is very exciting,'' Antelope Valley High math teacher Jonathan Paris said. ``People don't think we are as smart as this, but we are. We have always had top students.''

Taking second place in the junior-senior small-school competition was Paraclete High, whose team members - Domenic Donato, Nick Faino, and David Stachnick - scored 164.

Following Kuykendall in the individual top scoring category was Emil Salazar of Tehachapi High School with 73 points, and Bock of Desert high with 69 points.

In the two-person freshman-sophomore competition for large schools, Hart High twin sisters Elizabeth and Isabella Tang took first place with 106 points.

Quartz Hill High School's team of Brian Mercer and Raj Vaghiani took second place with 82 points.

Small-school freshman-sophomore first place winners were Desert High's Rebecca Hicks and Katie Shanks, who scored 102 points. Second place went to Tehachapi High's Chris Gripkey and Forrest Wallace with 82 points.

``It was a nice experience,'' said Hicks, 16, a sophomore. ``I like the lecture, the lunch. I like the math. Math is my favorite subject. I just like working with numbers.''

In the junior-senior competition, each member completed 20 questions in areas ranging from algebra to pre-calculus.

The freshman and sophomore teams each answered 22 questions in a ``leap-frog relay'' for a 110-point maximum score. Partners traded papers during the test, allowing each student to finish a partner's work or correct mistakes.

The contest affords students the opportunity to shine in a setting different from the classroom, Antelope Valley College math instructor Richard Sieger said.

``It's got something different from the classroom. In the classroom the topic is predictable, but in the test, there are a variety of topics. It's a different skill to be able to solve problems that aren't just today's topic. It's more of a challenge,'' Sieger said.

And sometimes a student who is not the best in the classroom can solve a difficult problem during the contest, outshining his peers who fail to come up with an answer.

``Today you could suddenly do something brilliant and be really happy about it,'' Sieger said.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Winner of the small-school math competition for high school juniors and seniors was Desert High's team: from left, Stefan Bock, Chris Simpson and Kaitlin Kirk. Seventeen public and private high schools competed Friday in the timed math tests.

(2 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Antelope Valley High's team placed second in the big-school math competition. From left, Alex Chin, Diane Santos, Connor Paulson. At right: Les Uhazy, A.V. College dean.

(3 -- color) First-place winner in the big-school category: Hart High School's team: from left, Will Kuykendall, Jane O and Anna Hiszpanski.

(4 -- ran in SAC edition only) Twin sisters Elizabeth, left, and Isabella Tang of Hart High won the Leap Frog Relay at A.V. College's Math Field Day.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer