The Lynx Way
BVHS students excel at math competition
Brandon Valley High School math students participated in the Merten-Hasse Mathematics Competition at USD on Saturday, April 9. Individual awards earned are as follows: Logan Brakke, first place, Geometry Division, Superior Rating, $1,000 USD scholarship; Tristan Niewenhuis, first place, Pre-Calculus Division, Superior Rating + $1,000 USD scholarship; Aiden Kasten, second place, Calculus Division, Superior Rating; Champ Stevens, Pre-Calculus Division, Honorable Mention.
In addition, the team of Kasten, Brakke, Jordan Stevenson, Niewenhuis and Stevens took third place in the team competition.
Ruhlman premiers work at senior recital
Gage Ruhlman, a music education major at South Dakota State University, premiered one song during a senior recital on April 10.
Ruhlman, a clarinetist from Valley Springs, was joined by students Portia Bird, Devon Byers and Joseph Cassady on “The Sun Goes Down,” a work Ruhlman created.
In addition, Ruhlman played works by Philippe Gaubert, Walter S. Hartley and Bernard Merkowitz. SDSU faculty member Xuan Kuang assisted on piano.
At SDSU, Ruhlman has participated in wind symphony, percussion ensemble, The Pride of the Dakotas Marching Band, pep band, jazz band, Civic Orchestra Windy Jacks Clarinet Ensemble, SDSU string quintent and clarinet trio.
Braley has success at Little International
Victoria Braley, of Brandon, placed second in the collegiate vision of Novice Horse Fitting at the 99th annual Little International April 1-2 at South Dakota State University.
4-H and FFA contests were held across campus on April 1, with collegiate showing and fitting competitions taking place in the SDSU Animal Science Arena throughout the weekend. Over 170 collegiate students competed in horse, sheep, lamb lead, goat, dairy, beef and swine contests.
Students interested in participating in Little “I” attended a livestock drawing in February to receive the chance to show one of the available animals. Dairy, horse and beef exhibitors were allowed to work with their animals for three weeks prior to the event.
DSU teams “Capture the Flag” at competitions
Dakota State students took top spots in capture-the-flag competitions at the spring Women in Cyber Security Conference.
One CTF competition was sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, another by Google.
Three DSU students, Dana Donahue, Annabelle Klosterman, and Austen King, participated in both CTFs, and took first place in the Carnegie Mellon CTF. “The competition presented various cyber-based challenges from different categories,” Klosterman said. Because they were a diverse team, they were able to rely on each other to help solve those challenges.
“The conference really promoted diversity of skills and especially gender. I think that is what our team had over the other teams - diversity in experiences and skills,” Klosterman said.
Klosterman said the competition provided them experience with different types of scenarios and problems they may encounter, which allowed them to develop their technical and problem-solving skills.
