A team from Seneca Valley High School took top honors in the second annual Carnegie Mellon University High School Programming Contest, hosted by the School of Computer Science on Saturday, March 7.

Twenty-six teams — almost twice as many as last year — competed for more than three hours during the contest. The competition is modeled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest and requires students to use logic, critical thinking and problem-solving skills as they attempt to solve eight programming problems.

Seneca Valley solved six problems to take first place. A team from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland — one of two Maryland schools participating this year — earned second place by solving five problems. The third-place team from Mt. Lebanon High School solved three. Teams from North Allegheny High School and the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy also solved three problems, but took more time.