University Hill Secondary student Jinhao Xu and Churchill Secondary's Henry Heng Xia were recognized as two of the three top students in Canada for the 19th annual 2014 Sun Life Financial Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC).

The silver and bronze awards were presented to Xu and Xia. This was Xu's first year writing the COMC and Xia's second year. Both Xu and Xia are Grade 11 students.

"The Sun Life Financial COMC gives students an opportunity to challenge themselves," said Dr. Robert Woodrow, Chair of the CMS COMC Committee. "We love hearing from students who enjoyed the exam and are excited about improving their scores from last year. That's what the COMC is all about -participation and further development of mathematics skills."

Nearly 6,000 enthusiastic math students from Canada and around the world wrote the challenging exam in November. The majority of participants ranged from grade nine to CÉGEP, however the competition was open to junior grades. There were several countries represented including Azerbaijan, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Switzerland, Singapore, Turkey and the United States.

The COMC is the first in a series of mathematics competitions held by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) that leads to the selection of Math Team Canada -a group of Canada's top students who participate at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).