Local News in Brief : Students Win at the Numbers

Four students at Malaga Cove Intermediate School have won a statewide math competition, while a team from Ridgecrest, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District’s other intermediate campus, placed fourth. The Malaga Cove team won the annual event, called Mathcounts, in 1986 also.

A California team, made up of the highest individual scorers in the competition in Downey on March 19, will go to the national competition in Washington on May 13. Malaga Cove teachers Phyllis Thom and Beverly Mairs will coach the California team, repeating the assignment they were given in 1986 as coaches of the winning school at the state level.

Members of the Malaga Cove team are Karl Haushalter, Jasen Li, Edwin J. Hsu and Will Smit. Ridgecrest’s team, coached by Alma Hennigan, is made up of David Chang, Edwin Y. Hsu, Lynn Itagaki and Patrick Lee.

The competition, begun in 1983 to upgrade math education in junior high schools, is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of Education and several professional and private organizations.