Two Libby High School students, Eli Alspaw and Austin Marshall, have assumed the lead in the Montana High School Business Challenge.

The contest is currently in the sixth of eight weeks, and pits teams of high school students from around the state against each other to manage a fictional business manufacturing and marketing a Blu-Ray player.

Faculty advisor Michelle Foss said she discovered the competition several years ago while attending a teacher’s conference. Her students have participated in the competition every year since then.

Each team creates a business strategy including research and development, marketing, advertising, production scheduling, inventory, finance and debt management and hiring and firing practices. Those decisions are submitted to the game administrator at the Montana Council on Economic Education, who evaluates the decisions against those of the other competitors. The results of those decisions are translated into sales, which then either increases or decreases the teams’ estimated stock value for the fictional company.

Alspaw and Marshall’s team has a stock value of $77 per share, up from the semester starting price of $25.

This year more than 700 students across the state are participating in the competition.