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29th National Geographic Bee

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29th National Geographic Bee
DateMay 15–17, 2017
LocationWashington, D.C.
WinnerPranay Varada
Age14
ResidenceIrving, Texas
No. of contestants54
Preceded by28th National Geographic Bee
Followed by30th National Geographic Bee

The 29th annual National Geographic Bee was held in Washington, D.C. It was sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The State Bees were held on March 31, 2017, where the 54 finalists were determined.[1] The 2017 Champion, Pranay Varada, received a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition for two to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour ll.[2]

2017 State Champions

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On March 31, 2017, the National Geographic State Bees were held across the 50 states, Washington, D.C., the Atlantic Territories, the Pacific Territories, and the Department of Defense. Fifty-four State or Territory level Champions were determined.[2]

State Name School City/Town Grade Place
 Alabama Jason DiRusso Louis Pizitz Middle School Vestavia Hills 8th
 Alaska Andres Arias Nicholas J Begich Middle School Anchorage 8th
 Arizona Aditya Narayanan Sonoran Sky Elementary School Scottsdale 5th
 Arkansas Denis Carranza Elmwood Middle School Rogers 7th
Puerto Rico United States Virgin Islands Atlantic Territories Matthew Haughton Antilles School St. Thomas, VI 8th
 California Ahilan Eraniyan Diablo Vista Middle School Danville 6th T-7th
 Colorado Henry Halgren Liberty Common High School Fort Collins 6th
 Connecticut William Foster Independent Day School Middlefield 8th
 Delaware Rohan Kanchana Newark Charter School Newark 8th T-7th
Department of Defense Connor Buchheit Wiesbaden Middle School Wiesbaden, Germany 8th
 District of Columbia Max Garon Sidwell Friends Middle School Washington 7th T-7th
 Florida Jacob Silver Cypress Lake Middle School Ft. Myers 6th
 Georgia Vishal Sareddy Riverwatch Middle School Suwanee 7th
 Hawaii Logan Kakugawa Hawaii Baptist Academy Honolulu 8th
 Idaho Nicholas Monahan Payette Lakes Middle School McCall 8th 4th
 Illinois Sahan Yalavarthi Twin Groves Middle School Buffalo Grove 7th
 Indiana Dylan Schutte Sunman-Dearborn Middle School Brookville 8th
 Iowa Grant Pedersen Cardinal Middle School Eldon 7th
 Kansas Sathvik Kasarabada California Trail Middle School Olathe 7th
 Kentucky Evan Winkler Morton Middle School Lexington 8th
 Louisiana Issac Jabaley Lusher Charter School New Orleans 6th
 Maine Joseph Luchsinger Berwick Academy South Berwick 7th
 Maryland Nabhoneel Sil Upadhyay Kingsview Middle School Germantown 8th
 Massachusetts Theodore Z. Batty Jenkins Elementary School Scituate 6th
 Michigan Peter Deegan-Krause Ferndale Middle School Ferndale 6th
 Minnesota Lucas Eggers STAR Homeschool Academy Minnetonka 8th 6th
 Mississippi Edmund Doerksen Oxford Middle School Oxford 8th
 Missouri Rohan Rao Gentry Middle School Columbia 7th
 Montana Ian Williams Sussex School Missoula 8th
 Nebraska Brendan Pennington Prairie Lane Elementary School Omaha 8th
 Nevada Maia Marshall St Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School Las Vegas 8th
 New Hampshire Abhinav Govindaraju Ross A. Lurgio Middle School Bedford 7th 10th
 New Jersey Veda Bhattaram Robert R. Lazar Middle School Montville 7th 3rd
 New Mexico Lakshay Sood Albuquerque Academy Albuquerque 6th
 New York Tayler Anderson Nyack Middle School Nyack 7th
 North Carolina Max Dyer Phoenix Academy High Point 6th
 North Dakota Krishna Kamalakannan Discovery Middle School Fargo 7th
 Ohio Saket Pochiraju Orange Middle School Lewis Center 7th
 Oklahoma Antonino Libarnes Oak Hill Episcopal School Ardmore 5th
 Oregon Ashwin Sivakumar Oregon Episcopal School Portland 7th
American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Pacific Territories Joanah Jimenez Marianas Baptist Academy Saipan, MP 7th
 Pennsylvania Eshan Singh Charles H Boehm Middle School Yardley 7th
 Rhode Island Isaiah Suchman Nathan Bishop Middle School Providence 8th
 South Carolina Connor Fraley Williams Middle School Florence 8th
 South Dakota Owen Fink Bridgewater-Emery School Bridgewater 6th
 Tennessee Simeon Betapudi Evangelical Christian School Cordova 7th
 Texas Pranay Varada DeWitt Perry Middle School Carrollton 8th Champion
 Utah Ankit Garg Bear River Charter School Logan 7th
 Vermont Anshuta Beeram Frederick H Tuttle Middle School South Burlington 6th
 Virginia Anish Susarla Belmont Ridge Middle School Leesburg 6th 5th
 Washington Arjun Nathan Pine Lake Middle School Sammamish 8th
 West Virginia Hunter Midcap St. Michael Parish School Wheeling 8th
 Wisconsin Thomas Wright University School of Milwaukee Milwaukee 8th 2nd
 Wyoming Preston Buehler Star Valley Middle School Afton 7th

Preliminary rounds

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The Preliminary Competition was held on Monday, May 15, 2017.[2] It consisted of two parts: a written part and an oral part worth 16 points total. In the written part, contestants were asked to write a sentence about why preserving oceans is important, identify places on a map that had been part of National Geographic's "pristine seas" project, and write an paragraph about which place needed to have steps taken for its preservation first: The Rio de la Plata estuary, the Sundarbans, or the Great Barrier Reef. It was graded out of six points total. The oral part consisted of ten rounds about world geography and National Geographic Explorers. All 54 State Champions participated, and after a tiebreaker ten finalists were determined:

  • Ahilan Eraniyan – from California
  • Rohan Kanchana – from Delaware
  • Max Garon – from District of Columbia
  • Nicholas Monahan – from Idaho
  • Lucas Eggers – from Minnesota
  • Abhinav Govindaraju – from New Hampshire
  • Veda Bhattaram – from New Jersey
  • Pranay Varada – from Texas
  • Anish Susarla – from Virginia
  • Thomas Wright – from Wisconsin

Final rounds

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The Final Competition was held on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The top 10 Finalists out of the 54 State Champions participated. Humorist, journalist, and actor Mo Rocca moderated the Competition for the second year in a row. The Champion was Pranay Varada of Texas. Thomas Wright of Wisconsin came second, and Veda Bhattaram of New Jersey came third. The GeoChallenge for the top three was about a new home country for the Maldivian people if their country becomes flooded after sea level rises. The choices were Indonesia, Turkey, and the Solomon Islands, in order of best to worst answer. In fourth place was Nicholas Monahan from Idaho. The fifth place finisher was Anish Susarla of Virginia, and Lucas Eggers of Minnesota came in sixth. Tying for seventh place were Rohan Kanchana of Delaware, Ahilan Eraniyan of California, and Max Garon of D.C. They were tied with Lucas Eggers, but in the tiebreaker question, asking for the distance between Washington, D.C., and London, they were eliminated after Eggers guessed closer to the correct answer than them and he moved on. In tenth place was Abhinav Govindaraju of New Hampshire. The first eliminations took place after round 5, a lightning round, where four left the competition. The next three eliminations were after round 9, another lightning round.

References

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  1. ^ "National Geographic Bee". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on August 15, 2000. Retrieved 19 Feb 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "National Geographic Society Newsroom". National Geographic Society Newsroom.