URBANA — Despite facing schools up to eight times its size, Uni placed seventh in Division 3AA at the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics state finals held Saturday at the University of Illinois.

The ICTM contest is the state's premier high school math competition. Each year, after advancing from the sectional level, about 200 schools send their top math students to the U of I to compete in one of four divisions: 1A (schools with up to 399 students in grades 9-12); 2A (400-999); 3AA (1,000-1,999); and 4AA (2,000 or more).

Although Uni has just 240 students in grades 9-12 and is therefore eligible for the 1A title, the school usually competes against the more challenging 3AA lineup.

This year 56 schools competed in the 3AA finals, having advanced from the Feb. 21 regional round held at 20 locations around the state.

Defending champion Vernon Hills won the state title with 725 points.

Coached by math executive teacher Craig Russell, Uni finished with a score of 567 points. Here is the top 10:

1. Vernon Hills — 725
2. Oak Park Fenwick — 709
3. Glen Ellyn Glenbard South — 675
4. Chicago Northside College Prep — 661
5. Chicago Marist — 602
5. Darien Hinsdale South — 602
7. UNI HIGH — 567
8. Lisle Benet Academy — 566
9. Lake Forest — 563
10. Arlington Heights John Hersey — 559

In individual events, freshman Kathy Qiu won seventh place in Algebra 1. Uni students placed in the top 10 in the following team events:

• 2nd place — Precalculus Team
  Daniel Borup, Vaishnavi Giridaran, Jason He, Carl Pearson, Brian Wang, Richard Wang

• 4th place — Junior-Senior Eight-Person Team
  Daniel Cheng, Amy Ding, Diana Liu, Neil Pearson, Daniel Borup, Carl Pearson, Brian Wang, Richard Wang

• 6th place — Algebra 2 Team
  Daniel Cheng, Amy Ding, Diana Liu, Grace Man, Neil Pearson, Daniel Wilson

• 6th place — Geometry Team
  Eric Chen, Ryan Ko, Kevin Li, Chris Mathy, Michael Meyer, Ian Slauch

• 8th place — Freshman-Sophomore Eight-Person Team, 8th place
  Dax Earl, Kevin Kuo, Kathy Qiu, Shruti Vaidya, Mohammad Jaber, Zach Korol-Gold, Kevin Li, John Vaughen

• 8th place — Junior-Senior Relay team
  Amy Ding, Neil Pearson, Vaishnavi Giridaran, Carl Pearson

• 9th place — Junior-Senior Two-Person Team
  Jason He, Richard Wang

Last year, led by International Math Olympiad champion Alex Zhai, Uni placed second at the ICTM state finals.