The Buchholz High School (BHS) math team earned its 14th national championship at the 2022 Mu Alpha Theta Convention held in Alexandria, Virginia, last week.
According to an Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) press release, Buchholz claimed the title scoring 7,157 total points. Runner-up American Heritage-Broward tallied 6,964 points. Teams earn points based on their members’ performance in both team and individual categories that cover advanced topics such as Analytic Geometry, Logs and Exponents, Open Probability and Combinatorics, and Calculus.
BHS won a total of 304 trophies—both a school and a Mu Alpha Theta competition record— with many of the team members bringing home first-place awards.
Coach and Buchholz math teacher Will Frazer said the team got off to a poor start on the first day of the competition.
“I think we had a lot of complacency,” he said. “We had a team meeting that night and after that everyone really elevated their attitude and focus and we kicked it into high gear.”
The older team members in the Calculus/Mu division performed as well or better than any group he’s ever had on the team, Frazer said.
The Buchholz team earned a spot in the national competition after winning its 15th Florida championship in April. BHS has now won 14 out of the last 15 national championships and the team’s win came just a day after an article in the Wall Street Journal chronicled the success of the Buchholz math team and its outreach to younger students under Frazer’s leadership.
The Buchholz students earning first place awards at the national competition include:
Sweepstakes (Relay): Kevin He, Hailey Lin, and Eileen Lai
Poster–Alpha Division: Katie He, Andrew Xing, Philip Matchev, and Thomas Wu; Mu Division: Jake Frazer, Kevin He, Samuel Kim, and Nicholas Dang
Vijay Hans-Theta Logs and Exponents
Vijay Hans-Theta Gemini
Ben Zhang-Theta Geometry
Ronald Zhang-Theta Circumference Perimeter Area and Volume
Katie He-Alpha Sequence and Series
Katie He-Alpha Complex Numbers
Katie He-Alpha Analytic Geometry
Hailey Lin-Alpha Gemini
Philip Matchev-Alpha Monumental Math
Thomas Wu-Alpha Equations and Inequalities
Andrew Xing-Alpha Trigonometry
Andrew Xing-Open Mental Math
Andrew Xing-Alpha Ciphering
Jake Frazer-Mu Integration
Jake Frazer-Mu Sequence and Series
Jake Frazer-Mu Ciphering
Jake Frazer-Mu composite
Jake Frazer-Mu Comic Sans
Terrence Han-Open History of Math
Kevin He-Mu Individual
Kevin He-Mu BC Calculus
Alan Qiu-Open Comprehensive
Tucker Shea-Open Probability and Combinatorics
Daniel Wang-Open Physics
Jeffrey Xue and Keen Zhang-Open Gemini