Two eighth-graders from Alta Loma Middle School in South San Francisco achieved top finishes in the recent Middle School Math Competition at Serra High School in San Mateo.

Terrance Wong (left in the picture) won first place in the Multiplication Mayhem individual contest while Shayne Pineda captured third in the Lightning Quick Logic match.

Alta Loma students have consistently done well in the competition over the years.

Last year, an eighth-grade team won the group contest. The school also saw one first-place and two second-place finishers in the individual contests.

“We are a middle school in a working-class neighborhood that doesn’t receive much attention,” math teacher Barbara Hahn said in an e-mail to me. “However, I see us as ‘The Little Engine that Could.’”

Hahn is definitely proud of the children she teaches and goes on to say: “We have many students who excel academically, and the math competition is just one of the things that shows how well-prepared our kids are to compete against other students from the Peninsula and private schools.”