Fifth grade students on the “SumDog” team at Ironton Elementary School recently won the website’s National Championship for the week of Dec. 7-13. The website, www.sumdog.com, is dedicated to fifth grade math tests, games and races, and has a U.S. National Math Competition each week.

The team is coached by math teacher Leslie Kerns, who said she was proud of the recent accomplishment by her students.

“Students are expected to answer 1,000 questions during the competition above their regular homework requirements. I set a goal for them not to miss more than 100 questions in their thousands,” Kerns said. “It takes a lot of work to find students who are willing and able to reach such a high goal.”

Out of 12,316 students in 1,766 classes throughout the country who competed in the competition that week, Kerns’ team had 10 who placed in the top 50, putting Ironton Elementary at the No. 1 spot.

Those who were in the top 50 included Kayden Hopkins in third place, Khamil Martin in fifth place, Cole Taylor in seventh place, Nate Sloan in ninth place, Brady Easton in 11^th place, Dawson Philyaw in 14^th place, Lilly Lewis in 15^th place, Evee Gallion in 21^st place, Haley Shimer in 31^st place and Tori Moore in 32^nd place.

“I’m extremely blessed with students who are able to be motivated to reach the goals I set for them,” Kerns said. “They have put in many hours to make this possible. I asked them to win me a national championship for Christmas, and that’s just what they did.”

In addition to the national competition, the Ironton Elementary School “SumDog” team also finished first in the local competition, a weeklong online math contest that ended on Nov. 15, with eight of the top 10 students being from Ironton Elementary.