# 30th National Geographic Bee

The 30th annual National Geographic Bee was held in Washington, D.C., and was hosted by Mo Rocca. It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society. The State Bees were held on April 6, where the 54 finalists were determined. The 2018 National Geographic Bee champion was Venkat Ranjan of California.

## State Bees

On April 6, 2018, 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. In 2018, the prize for winning the state bee has been raised, as $200 is now given to the winner instead of $100, the old prize. The winners have also received a National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World, Second Edition. Second and third place winners received $150 and $100, respectively. The state preliminary rounds (there were 8 total) consisted of rounds about U.S. geography, international geography, current events, national birds, protecting the environment, Weird but True, and a “GeoChallenge”. The GeoChallenge was a True/False round where a statement would be made about a U.S. state’s population, GDP, or size, comparing it to another country, and the student would have to say if it was True or False. For example, one question was “Virginia has a higher GDP than Portugal, True or False?”-the answer is true. All 54 regional champions received an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national competition from May 20–23. The National Geographic Bee is an academic competition for 4th-8th grade students at: "public schools, private schools, and homeschools in the United States and its territories, as well as the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS).

### State Champions as National Contestants (T=Tie)

| State | Name | School | City/Town | Grade | Place |
| Alabama | Christian Martin | Echols Middle School | Northport | 8th | T-30th |
| Alaska | Riley Gross | Ocean View Elementary School | Anchorage | 6th | T-45th |
| Arizona | Gayatri Kaimal | BASIS Tucson North School | Tucson | 7th | T-4th |
| Arkansas | Wesley Bonner | Lake Hamilton Junior High School | Hot Springs | 8th | T-34th |
| Atlantic Territories | Diego Curet | St. John’s School | San Juan | 8th | T-53rd |
| California | Venkat Ranjan | Windemere Ranch Middle School | San Ramon | 8th | 1st |
| Colorado | Garrett Fleischmann | Stargate Middle School | Thornton | 7th | T-22nd |
| Connecticut | James Leone | Middlesex Middle School | Darien | 8th | T-17th |
| Delaware | Jeremiah Rayban | Cab Calloway School of the Arts | Wilmington | 7th | T-24th |
| Department of Defense | Alex Daniels | Seoul Am Middle School | Seoul, South Korea | 7th | T-12th |
| District of Columbia | Max Garon | Sidwell Friends Middle School | Washington | 8th | T-12th |
| Florida | Kaylan Patel | Windermere Preparatory School | Windermere | 6th | T-17th |
| Georgia | Vishal Sareddy | Riverwatch Middle School | Suwanee | 8th | 3rd |
| Hawaii | William Chen | Aikahi Elementary | Kailua | 6th | T-38th |
| Idaho | Vincent Giordano | Lowell Scott Middle School | Boise | 8th | T-42nd |
| Illinois | Ty Jones | Crestwood School | Paris | 8th | T-38th |
| Indiana | Jonathon Elliott | Griffith Middle School | Griffith | 7th | T-30th |
| Iowa | Kavya Kalathur | Pleasant Valley Junior High School | LeClaire | 8th | T-17th |
| Kansas | Wyatt Boyd | Hocker Grove Middle School | Shawnee | 7th | T-24th |
| Kentucky | Case W. Grillot | Highlands Middle School | Fort Thomas | 8th | T-24th |
| Louisiana | Andrew Minagar | Caddo Middle School | Shreveport | 7th | T-34th |
| Maine | Colin Aponte | Hancock Co. Area Homeschoolers | Blue Hill | 8th | T-42nd |
| Maryland | Alan Zhang | Mount View Middle School | Marriottsville | 8th | T-45th |
| Massachusetts | Atreya Mallanna | Joseph Estabrook Elementary School | Lexington | 5th | 7th |
| Michigan | Paarth Sharma | Moorsbridge Elementary School | Portage | 5th | T-12th |
| Minnesota | Nicholas Peterson | St. John Baptist School | New Brighton | 8th | T-24th |
| Mississippi | Jacob Holland | Long Beach Middle School | Long Beach | 8th | T-38th |
| Missouri | Jackson Cooper | Christ The King School | University City | 7th | T-45th |
| Montana | Caleb Mark | Yellowstone County Home Educators | Billings | 8th | T-53rd |
| Nebraska | Quentin Bauer | Central Middle School | Omaha | 7th | T-45th |
| Nevada | Emmanuel Gayton-Vargas | Carson Valley Middle School | Gardnerville | 7th | T-45th |
| New Hampshire | Sean Cheng | Cooperative Middle School | Stratham | 8th | 10th |
| New Jersey | Anoushka Buddhikot | Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School | Bridgewater | 8th | 2nd |
| New Mexico | Lakshay Sood | Albuquerque Academy | Albuquerque | 7th | T-12th |
| New York | Nicholas Sarris | West Hollow Middle School | Melville | 8th | T-45th |
| North Carolina | Jonathan Song | Salem Middle School | Apex | 8th | 6th |
| North Dakota | Krishna Kamalakannan | Discovery Middle School | Fargo | 8th | 11th |
| Ohio | Saket Pochiraju | Orange Middle School | Lewis Center | 8th | T-8th |
| Oklahoma | Dyllon Wheeler | Epic Charter Schools | Oklahoma City | 8th | T-45th |
| Oregon | Ashwin Sivakumar | Oregon Episcopal School | Portland | 8th | T-4th |
| Pacific Territories | Napu Mesa Blas | Luis P. Untalan Middle School | Barrigada | 7th | T-34th |
| Pennsylvania | Arnab Sircar | Charles F Patton Middle School | Kennett Square | 8th | T-17th |
| Rhode Island | Maximus Terra | Alan Shawn Feinstein Middle School | Coventry | 8th | T-38th |
| South Carolina | Sam Henshaw | Moultrie Middle School | Mt. Pleasant | 7th | T-22nd |
| South Dakota | Owen Fink | Bridgewater-Emery School | Bridgewater | 7th | T-34th |
| Tennessee | Aditya Narayanan | Riverdale Elementary School | Germantown | 6th | T-30th |
| Texas | Nihar Janga | Canyon Ridge Middle School | Austin | 7th | T-8th |
| Utah | Felix Keil | Salt Lake Arts Academy | Salt Lake City | 8th | T-17th |
| Vermont | Mary Fowler | Eastern Vermont Homeschooler | Hartland | 7th | T-45th |
| Virginia | Caleb Hines | Ashburn Homeschoolers | Ashburn | 8th | T-24th |
| Washington | Ihsan Lishar | Spiritridge Elementary School | Bellevue | 5th | T-12nd |
| West Virginia | Joss Poteet | Wildwood Middle School | Shenandoah Junction | 7th | T-24th |
| Wisconsin | Hansen Jin | Kromrey Middle School | Middleton | 8th | 16th |
| Wyoming | Preston Buehler | Star Valley Middle School | Afton | 8th | T-30th |

## Preliminary Rounds & Final Competition

The 54 state champions competed in the preliminary rounds held from May 21–22, 2018. This part of the contest consisted of 10 oral rounds as well as a written portion.
The top 10 contestants with the highest scores in the preliminary rounds competed in the final round, which was held on May 23, 2018. Venkat Ranjan from California was the champion, with Anoushka Buddhikot from New Jersey coming 2nd, and Vishal Sareddy from Georgia placing third.
National Championship Final Contestants :
| Name | State | Preliminary Round Scores | Final Placing |
| Sean Cheng | New Hampshire | 19/20 (10/10 + 9/10) | 10th |
| Gayatri Kaimal | Arizona | 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10) | 4th |
| Venkat Ranjan | California | 18/20 (9/10 + 9/10) | 1st |
| Atreya Mallanna | Massachusetts | 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10) | 7th |
| Anoushka Buddhikot | New Jersey | 18/20 (10/10 + 8/10) | 2nd |
| Jonathan Song | North Carolina | 18/20 (8/10 + 10/10) | 6th |
| Saket Pochiraju | Ohio | 18/20 (9/10 + 9/10) | 8th |
| Vishal Sareddy | Georgia | 17/20 (8/10 + 9/10) | 3rd |
| Ashwin Sivakumar | Oregon | 17/20 (8/10 + 9/10) | 4th |
| Nihar Janga | Texas | 17/20 (10/10 + 7/10) | 8th |
* Krishna Kamalakannan, of North Dakota, also finished with 17 out of 20 points but was eliminated by a tiebreaker test the students had taken specifically for the purpose of breaking ties.