Apr 4, 2011 By Joyce Koballa 2 min read

?The 8th grade math class at Frazier Middle School clinched the national championship in a math problem solving competition that ended March 31.

The three-month competition dubbed “March Math Madness,” was sponsored by Apangea Learning of Pittsburgh.

It started in January with 1,400 schools across the nation with Frazier then ranked as the number two seed.

Throughout the competition Frazier managed to make it to the Sweet 16, the Elite 8, the Final 4 and then the final two where they squared off against Roosevelt Elementary School in Boise, Idaho.

Susan Szelc, eigth grade math teacher, said April 1 was a day of celebration for the 74 students that participated in the competition as well as the entire school.

Apangea serves as a computer-based, one-on-one math and writing tutorial service for students in grades kindergarten through 12.

Lisa Wise, Northeast program manager for Apangea, said as of Friday Apangea representatives were still tallying the overall number of problems that Frazier successfully completed to win the contest with the final figures to be released this week.

As the winning school, Frazier will receive the coveted March Math Mandess Trophy, a banner to hang in the gym, a pep-rally, cool March Madness T-shirts and an iPod Touch for the top two students that completed the most math problems during the contest.

The date for the celebration will be announced by school officials sometime this month.