FAIRMONT — Junior Shintaro Takatsuki, a student at Fairmont Jr./Sr. High School, recently qualified as an individual for the Minnesota State High School Math League Math Bowl, which took place earlier this week at South St. Paul High School.

Takatsuki is a foreign exchange student from Osaka, Japan. He is staying with the Mittelstadt family.

There are eight schools in the MN Valley division, including the Fairmont Math League team. The schools in each division come together for five meets each season.

“He was tied for the overall individual leader for the MN Valley division of which we compete in,” said Fairmont team coach Jerry Brooks. “He was an individual point leader for our division for the year, and because of that, he earned the right to the state tournament.”

Takatsuki participated in the geometry and advanced algebra test at the state tournament. He was one among 300 students at the event who competed either individually or part of a team.

Students must finish first in their division individually or as a team to go to state. The last time a student from Fairmont was first in his division and reached the state competition as an individual was Joel Dahlin in 2006. The last time a team from Fairmont went to the state tournament was 2004.

This year, there were 19 students on the Math League team at Fairmont Jr./Sr. High School. Takatsuki decided to join Math League because math is one of his hobbies, though he said math in America is easier than what he is used to back home.