Santa Monica College has finished in 6th place out of 188 community colleges in the 2008-09 national Student Math League competition.

The SMC team was powered by outstanding mathematician Ke Qu, who finished 5th out of 2,121 students participating nationwide, and Kevin Horowitz, who had the 8th highest total.

The Student Math League competition - in which students are given multiple choice and written exams - is sponsored by the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges.

Altogether, more than 100 students from SMC participated in the math league.

"I am very proud of our students," said math professor William Konya. "Their strong results show that the students in mathematics at Santa Monica College do outstanding work."