In its inaugural year the Steiner Strategic Stallions, a math team at Steiner Ranch Elementary School, won the 2014 Math Pentathlon State Championship. The team was presented with a trophy June 3 at a school assembly.

The team earned 26 medals during the tournament—10 gold medals, six silver medals and 10 bronze medals. An additional 10 members were awarded with an honorable mention.

"Steiner Ranch, with their exemplary coaches and driven pentathletes, has become the only campus in Leander ISD to win the State First Place Gold National Mathematics Pentathlon Academic Team Tournament award," said Rene LeBlanc, a board member from the Pentathlon Institute. "With their attention to a quality program where all students work together and the community becomes involved, there is no doubt in my mind that this won't be their last trip to the podium."

The team was created by Jake Leffler at the beginning of the school year to provide an opportunity for active problem solving and decision making, Leffler said.

"I honestly thought it would just be my son and some of his friends when I considered starting the team," he said. "We sent out a message to see if there was interest in the community, and we had more than 100 applications within three weeks. The support for this team has been phenomenal."

The 71-member team learned five different games based on their grade level. Each game covered curriculum aligned skills including computational, logical, scientific, spatial and geometric reasoning. Each team member competed in all five games.