FAIRMONT — Zihao Yang, a soon-to-be senior at Fairmont High School, placed second at this year’s state Trigstar competition.

A regional competition took place in March at South Central Technical College in North Mankato. One hundred and eight students from six high schools participated. Fairmont placed third as a team. Fourteen students were on Fairmont’s team, all juniors or seniors.

The competition requires students to individually complete a one-hour test, with the intention of getting as high a score as quickly as possible.

Yang placed second overall individually while Fairmont’s Tyler Fogelson took fifth place at regional competition.

Yang finished the test in just over 20 minutes and received 100 percent. When asked if the test given during the competition was difficult, Yang said, “It was surprisingly pretty easy. I was expecting it to be harder.”

Scores from regional competitions across the state were later compared. High school math teacher and Trigstar coach Jerry Brooks recently learned that Yang came out second in the state overall. Yang was awarded $250 and received a silver medal.

This was Yang’s second time competing, though he did not place last year. He is a strong math student and would like to go into the field following high school.

“I’ll probably study something like engineering,” Yang said.

He is also in band, orchestra, Knowledge Bowl and Math League.

Fairmont High School has been competing in the regional Trigstar competition for about a dozen years, but last year was the first year it placed first both regionally and statewide.

“We’ve had a student win it in the past. As far as team-wise, we’ve been close to winning it, and last year was our first break-through,” Brooks said.

The Trigstar competition is sponsored by a number of businesses and organizations, including South Central College, Bolton & Menk, JR Nelson and I + S Group.