ABOVE: From left: Jonas Krist, Jacob Kastning and Isaac Stone stand with their certificates of achievement after their final regular-season match of the year on Monday at Mankato East High School. Submitted photo.

FAIRMONT – With everything on the line Monday, Fairmont’s math league team went above and beyond to secure its spot at state.

Fairmont needed to finish fourth or higher to finish at the top of their section and advance to state. Rather than having to sit on pins and needles, Fairmont eliminated all doubt by winning its meet outright and advancing to state.

In addition to this, three students finished in the top 10 individually. Jacob Kastning and Jonas Krist finished eighth and sixth, respectively, putting forth valiant efforts that were just shy of the top five, with Krist missing out by one point.

Isaac Stone, who had been the number one individual mathlete in their section across all previous meets, edged out Henry Manthe of MN Valley Lutheran and two students from Mankato West to win the contest individually with a score of 53.

In addition to advancing to the team state competition, Stone’s win also locks him into the individual state competition, where he will compete as one of the state’s top mathletes.

While they have plenty to celebrate, Coach David Miller said they couldn’t bring home all of the gold.

“When we went into this meet, we were crushing our section,” he said. “However, we were tied for first with Mankato West for our division title. Sadly, we did not beat Mankato West, but we made them sweat. We ended 2nd in our division.”

Their division is different from their section, as they each feature different teams, and division does not dictate state qualification.

The state competition will be held on March 16.