Four Brandywine Middle School students were part of a team that finished in third place at the Mathcounts Southwest Regional event last week in Kalamazoo.

Coaches Rex Pomranka and Doug Fox both said the team’s finish is the school’s best in recent memory.

“This was a great opportunity for them to shine academically,” Fox said. “They love to compete and this is a chance for them to compete in a different way.”

Seventh graders Justin Reske, Megan Wieger, Jacob Fox and Dominick Thornton are the four members of Brandywine’s team.

“We are proud — it is cool to be able to win this for our school,” Wieger said.

The students were chosen for the team based on their reputation as some of the best math students at Brandywine.

“We take our elite kids and try to challenge them in a competition,” Pomranka said. “We are going against kids of their same ability from all over the region. It was good to see a little school compete with the big boys. They were excited and we were excited as coaches.”

The event features some of the area’s best math students in grades sixth through eighth who compete in “bee-style” contests.

“They answer a bunch of math problems in different ways,” Fox said. “They worked together really well.”

The top two teams advanced to the state competition — a goal Pomranka said they would aim for next year.

“We were one place out,” he said. “Our wheels are already turning for next year trying to push them to get in the top two.”

Fox said the team’s finish is a tribute to the teachers who have taught the students over the past several years.

“A lot of the stuff that helped them is stuff they learned in their regular classes,” he said.