# 29th 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. 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.

## 2017 State Champions

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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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

The Preliminary Competition was held on Monday, May 15, 2017. 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

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.