School news: Pine Tree math, science team wins state competition
Published 5:30 am Sunday, April 5, 2026
The Pine Tree High School Math and Science Team recently won the 4A Championship at the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association State Meet in San Antonio.
The last time the team won the championship was 2009. Three years ago, the team landed in ninth place. Two years ago, the team moved up to fourth. This past year, the team placed second.
The team beat East Texas competitors Spring Hill (fourth place) and Lindale (fifth place) at this year’s event.
The Pine Tree team’s coaches, Amber Harrington and Dannie Urban, invest countless hours in developing strategies and finding the best learning opportunities for their students, school officials said in a statement. For two years, the Pine Tree Educational Foundation has funded special classes that students take online outside of school hours.
In San Antonio, Pine Tree students also garnered individual and grade-level honors. The competition recognizes the Top Gun in each grade level. The Top Gun is the student who has the highest average among all four contests: number sense, mathematics, calculator and science.
Pine Tree students brought home Top Gun awards for ninth through 11th grades, and two seniors won scholarships. In addition, the team won first place in number sense in all four grades. The team also won first place in ninth-grade and 10th-grade mathematics.
The team will compete at the 4A UIL State tournament in May.
Spring Hill team competes at math, science meet
The Spring Hill High School Math/Science team recently competed in the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association 4A State Meet at the University of Texas at San Antonio and finished in fourth place overall.
Additionally, senior Bon Kim received a TMSCA scholarship for earning the fifth-highest total individual score across all four events: number sense, calculator, math and science.
Students representing Spring Hill were Kim, Noah Wardlaw, Jack Cooper, Alex Graham, Sunny Kim and Mia Bustamante. The students are coached by Jessica Terry and Debby Bass.
Spring Hill students place in Citizen Bee
Spring Hill students recently participated in the Texas Citizen Bee Competition. The Citizen Bee is a civic education program with students competing in history, government and current events.
Spring Hill is included in Region 7 of the competition, and six high school students were among the top 10 competitors. Brynlee Catt placed third, Emerson McFaul placed second and Bon Kim placed first. Kim will compete at the State Citizen Bee in Austin.
Additionally, six students from Spring Hill Junior High School made the top 10 in the junior high competition. Natalie Anderson placed third, and Deacon Nash finished in second place. Nash will compete in the state competition in May.
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