2006 Geography Bee Surprise Ending!    
                                                                            posted 1/19/2006    
     
     
 
Katherine E. and first place winner Luke Miltz are all smiles as they stand with Mr. Freed after the Bee.		  
 
For the first time in memory (although we can’t be sure it’s never happened before), a fifth grader has won the all-school Geography Bee. Luke Miltz was declared the TCS champion last month after he edged out eighth grader Katherine E. in a tie-breaker to end the championship round.

The championship round consisted of three questions:

The Maya ruins at Chichén Itzá cover four square miles on the Yucatán Peninsula in which country? (Mexico)

In April 2005, Pope John Paul II’s funeral procession crossed St. Peter’s Square in which small European country? (Vatican or Vatican City)

Which country is bordered by the Gulf of Gdansk to the north and the Carpathian Mountains to the south? (Poland)

Luke and Katherine each answered one of the three questions correctly and two incorrectly. Then it was on to the tie-breaker, where both answered one question correctly before Luke prevailed on this one: Wimbledon, the site of a famous tennis tournament, is in a borough of which European capital city? (London)

Up next for Luke: a written test. If he places in the top 100, he’ll have the opportunity to compete in the State Geography Bee in March. Good luck, Luke!

Congratulations to all the Geography Bee contestants, who won the right to compete by winning classroom bees: Fourth graders David Gernon and Josh Greene, fifth graders Sophia Holman and Luke Miltz, sixth graders Asher Gilliland and Rebecca Kaye, seventh graders Jonah Freed and Max Haverfield, and eighth graders Katherine E. and David Gast.