Regional math contest in Havre requires a tie breaker

Something uncommon happened as 400 students from north-central Montana filled 20 Havre High School rooms to take three tests in two hours Wednesday afternoon to compete in the 2016 Montana Council of Teachers of Mathematics contest: two boys tied for the senior scholarship.

The MCTM math tests have been going on for 50 years. Havre High School math teacher Mary Wagner said she had been teaching for 37 years, yet she had never run into this problem before. So she called the director of the contest, in Billings, to figure out what to do.

Havre High School seniors Logan Pleninger and Cayden Seiler were knotted for the $200 scholarship that could be applied to the college they would attend.

Wagner was happy to announce that Havre High students took the top four spots. The tests were no walk in the park.

"The tests are very, very tough. Way stronger than ACT and SAT," Wagner said, referring to the math portion of the national standardized tests.

Seniors took three tests: the scholarship, senior and finite tests.

Wagner learned how the tie would be broken. The student who scored highest on the scholarship test won.

Logan Pleninger was the victor.

On the girls' side, the scholarship went to another Havre High School students, Hailee Kilgore, whose margin of victory was "pretty clear."

As this is Wagner's last year teaching, she said she was excited that "we went out with a bang."