Carl Sandburg Elementary second-grade teacher Jennifer Via calls her students “math monsters.”

For good reason.

The students recently practiced hard for more than a month as they solved 134,823 math problems to gear up for World Math Day. During the online competition, students from around the world went head-to-head on March 7. Sandburg students missed recess that day to participate in the event.

Out of 1.57 million students who took part in the games this year, Sandburg students placed No. 32 in the Event Hall of Fame for the 4-7 age category. The Hall of Fame features the top 50 classes in the world.

“I call them my little math obsessive mon sters because that’s what they’ve become,” said Via about her students during a pizza party for her class last week. “They worked so hard and were so excited to compare results.”

Her class, which was named the “Lil’ Monsters” got an overall score of 16,096 correct math problems.

Second grader David Folta earned the top score, solving 48 math problems in 60 seconds. Overall, he correctly solved 1,500 math problems during the event.

“I’ve done a lot of math before and this seemed a little easy,” said Folta.

His favorite math problem: 4+5=9.

“It’s really easy for me,” Folta added.

Other students improved their math skills considerably, thanks to the event, said Via. Riley Ethridge was named the Most Improved Player, improving her individual score by 400 percent.

“I think it was really fun,” said Ethridge of the competition.

During World Math Day, students were matched in real time with up to three other students from around the world of similar age and ability during live challenges. Each challenge lasted one minute and students tried to correctly answer as many problems as they can. Each correct answer is one point.

Via’s students received a participation certificate and a Sapphire Award. Students will also receive a gold award.

“It’s all them – it’s completely all them,” said Via, pointing to her students: Ari Cherny, Neven Marinkovic, Cooper Spring, Grant Shulda, Karl Purpus, Ryan McCann, Ethan Nicolay, Riley Davis, Sebastian Sosa, Kyle Hewig, Matt Hopwood, David Folta, Maya Burris, April Skeels, Sophie Vinokurov, Jillian Beatty, Elizabeth Buchholz, Riley Ethridge, Mariah Gerard-Galindo, Maya Nair, Zoe Steele, and Caroline Morris.

For more information about World Math Day, visit www.worldmathsday.com.