Hempfield High School mathematics team won the top prize at the 2004 High School Mathematics Contest held at Harrisburg Area Community College last week. The Hempfield team, Weilin Shao (senior), Charles Smith (junior) and Johnna Mahoney (sophomore) competed against 14 other Central Pennsylvania high school teams in arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry. This is the third consecutive year Hempfield High School placed first.

Cumberland Valley High School, made up of Alex Melville (senior), Tim Heath (junior ) and Paul Russ (sophomore) placed second and Northern High School made up of Adam Nicholl (senior), Julie Davis (junior) and Joshua Payne (sophomore), placed third.

Johnna Mahoney, the sophomore from Hempfield High School received the award for highest overall score. Her teammate Charles Smith placed second in overall high score, and Tim Heath, of Cumberland Valley, came in third.

HACC also hosts a computer contest for high schools as a way of developing the local talent throughout the counties that HACC serves.

"Events like these are important in cultivating the talents of these young people," said HACC vice president, John Ford, during the awards ceremony. "We have a number of academically sophisticated students in southcentral Pennsylvania, and we would like to add more of these kinds of competitions to encourage them and the great work they are doing."

High schools participating in the event included Annville-Cleona, Camp Hill, Central Dauphin, Central Dauphin East, Cumberland Valley, Elizabethtown Area, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology High School, Hempfield, Lower Dauphin, Northern, Shippensburg, Susquehanna Township, Susquenita and West Perry.