By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Maplesville High School students placed first in the natural science competition and third in the advanced math competition at Wallace State Community College’s Academic Challenge for Excellence.

Jackson Abbott, Kyle Tillery and Harrison Smith were the natural science team. Abbott said the competition consisted of a test that the group worked on together and an activity to find the mass of objects. The students said they were nervous going in to the competition.

Winners were announced at the end of the day during an award ceremony where the top three teams in each category received medals.

Harrison said they also got to shake hands with the president of the college.

The students hope to compete again next year and remain the top team.

During the activity to find an object’s mass, Tillery said the team was given a closed box with three items in it and a bag of items. After weighing the box, students selected three items from the bag that they thought were in the box based on the size and weight of the box, Tillery said.

The team got two out of three of the items correct.

Gracie Harrison, Gavin Jones and Katie Payton made up the advanced math team.

Jones said each teammate took a math test as a part of the competition, and the scores were averaged for the team’s score. Students are not allowed to use a calculator. Payton said she was nervous going into the competition.

Jones said it was his second time competing in ACE, and it felt good to be able to place third after not placing last year.

Participants in ACE were selected from MHS based on students’ interest in competing and their grades.

“It looks good on our college applications,” Payton said of competing in ACE.

She said she enjoyed the opportunity and would like to participate.