28th National Geographic Bee

The 28th annual National Geographic Bee was held between May 22–25, 2016 in Washington, DC. For the first time, the bee was moderated by the American humorist, journalist and actor Mo Rocca and featured a grand prize of a $50,000 college scholarship.^[1][2] The champion was Rishi Nair of Williams Magnet Middle School in Tampa, Florida, who won the $50,000 scholarship, lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and a Lindblad expedition to southeast Alaska.^[3] The 2nd-place winner was Saketh Jonnalagadda of Stony Brook Middle School in Westford, Massachusetts, who won a $25,000 scholarship. The 3rd-place winner was Kapil Nathan of Brock's Gap Intermediate School in Hoover, Alabama, who won a $10,000 scholarship. Rishi was also the First sixth-grade National Champion since 2008.

28th National Geographic Bee
Date	May 22–25, 2016
Location	Washington, D.C.
Winner	Rishi Nair
Age	12
Residence	Tampa, Florida
No. of contestants	54
Preceded by	27th National Geographic Bee
Followed by	29th National Geographic Bee

2016 State Champions

State	Name	School	City/Town	Grade	Place
Alabama	Kapil Nathan	Brock's Gap Intermediate School	Hoover	6th	3rd
Alaska	Ben Ng	Floyd Dryden Middle School	Juneau	8th
Arizona	Ari Mehta	Explorer Middle School	Phoenix	8th
Arkansas	D. J. Quezada	Haas Hall Academy	Bentonville	8th
Atlantic Territories	Matthew Haughton	Antilles School	St. Thomas, VI	7th
California	Nishaanth Krishnan	Utt Middle School	Tustin	8th
Colorado	Cooper Hanley	Louisville Middle School	Louisville	7th
Connecticut	Ritwik Bose	Scotts Ridge Middle School	Ridgefield	8th
Delaware	Eric Smith	Postlethwait Middle School	Camden	8th
Department of Defense	Connor Buchheit	Wiesbaden Middle School	Wiesbaden, Germany	7th
District of Columbia	Max Garon	Sidwell Friends Middle School	Washington, DC	6th
Florida	Rishi Nair	Williams Magnet Middle School	Tampa	6th	Champion
Georgia	Jerome Perera	Taylor Road Middle School	Johns Creek	7th
Hawaii	Mika Ishii	Kaimuki Middle School	Honolulu	8th
Idaho	Nicholas Monahan	Payette Lakes Middle School	McCall	7th
Illinois	Mantra Dave	Chiddix Junior High School	Normal	8th
Indiana	Simon Molenaar	Highland Christian School	Highland	7th
Iowa	Patrick Taylor	Northwest Junior High School	Coralville	8th
Kansas	Aviral Misra	Prairie Star Middle School	Leawood	8th
Kentucky	Shyam Ravishankar	Noe Middle School	Louisville	8th
Louisiana	Luke Andel	Isidore Newman School	New Orleans	8th
Maine	Haden Buzzell	Massabesic Middle School	East Waterboro	6th
Maryland	Rishi Kumar	Worthington Elementary School	Ellicott City	5th	T-4
Massachusetts	Saketh Jonnalagadda	Stony Brook Middle School	Westford	8th	2nd
Michigan	Pranav Arunandhi	Reuther Middle School	Rochester Hills	8th
Minnesota	Lucas Eggers	STAR Homeschool Academy	Minnetonka	7th	7th
Mississippi	Edmund Doerksen	Oxford Middle School	Oxford	7th
Missouri	Nikhil Krishnan	Rockwood South Middle School	Fenton	8th
Montana	Grace Rembert	Sacajawea Middle School	Bozeman	8th	T-4
Nebraska	Deeksha Sridhar	Millard North Middle School	Omaha	6th
Nevada	Spencer Gabe	Las Vegas Day School	Las Vegas	8th
New Hampshire	Abhinav Govindaraju	Shaker Road School	Concord	6th
New Jersey	Veda Bhattaram	Robert R. Lazar Middle School	Montville	6th
New Mexico	Lakshay Sood	Manzano Day School	Albuquerque	5th
New York	Ethan Tsvayg	Mark Twain Intermediate School 239	Brooklyn/Staten Island	7th
North Carolina	Samanyu Dixit	Jay M. Robinson Middle School	Charlotte	6th	T-8
North Dakota	Jonathan Farnsworth	Valley Middle School	Grand Forks	8th
Ohio	Saket Pochiraju	Olentangy Orange Middle School	Lewis Center	6th
Oklahoma	Keane VanTrease	Jenks Middle School	Jenks	8th
Oregon	Ashwin Sivakumar	Oregon Episcopal School	Portland	6th	T-8
Pacific Territories	Victoria Nicole Santos	Marianas Baptist Academy	Saipan, MP	7th
Pennsylvania	Benjamin Fischer	Vida Charter School	Gettysburg	5th
Rhode Island	Eli Fulton	Rhode Island of Home Educators	Rumford	8th
South Carolina	Joshua Woodfin	Greenville County Home Educators	Simpsonville	8th
South Dakota	Owen Fink	Bridgewater-Emery School	Bridgewater	5th
Tennessee	John Webster	Evangelical Christian School	Cordova	8th
Texas	Pranay Varada	DeWitt Perry Middle School	Carrollton	7th	6th
Utah	Ankit Garg	Bear River Charter School	Logan	6th
Vermont	Isaac Krementsov	Shelburne Community School	Shelburne	7th
Virginia	Vishvesha Sridhar	Blackburg Middle School	Blacksburg	8th
Washington	Satvik Kabbur	Bear Creek Elementary School	Woodinville	4th
West Virginia	Surya Perla	Andrew Jackson Middle School	Charleston	8th
Wisconsin	Thomas Wright	University School of Milwaukee	Milwaukee	7th	T-8
Wyoming	Degory Day	Evanston Middle School	Evanston	7th

Preliminary rounds

Ten preliminary rounds held on May 23, 2016. Each State Champion had to answer ten oral questions, and prior to their arrival in Washington, D.C., had to submit a video related to a topic. The video was worth up to six points, hence the highest possible number of points was 16. One 16 and 4 15s were scored. A 9-way tie for 14 pts was broken with 4 exiting the competition. The ten finalists were announced around 11:30. The top ten finalists were as follows:

• Kapil Nathan- from Alabama; 14/16 (9/10 + 5/6)
• Rishi Nair- from Florida; 15/16 (10/10 + 5/6)
• Rishi Kumar- from Maryland; 14/16 (8/10 + 6/6)
• Saketh Jonnalagadda- from Massachusetts; 14/16 (9/10 + 5/6)
• Lucas Eggers- from Minnesota; 16/16 (10/10 + 6/6) (only one with a perfect score in the preliminary rounds)
• Grace Rembert- from Montana; 15/16 (10/10 + 5/6)
• Samanyu Dixit- from North Carolina; 15/16 (10/10 + 5/6)
• Ashwin Sivakumar- from Oregon; 15/16 (9/10 + 6/6)
• Pranay Varada- from Texas; 14/16 (9/10 + 5/6)
• Thomas Wright- from Wisconsin; 14/16 (9/10 + 5/6)

^[4]

Final rounds

The finals consisted of questions regarding the U.S. through Rounds 1–5, with 4 eliminated once Round 5 was over. A tie existed between Rishi Kumar and Lucas Eggers, with the latter exiting the competition. After that, questions regarding the world appeared. A three-way tie existed between Grace Rembert, Rishi Kumar again, and Kapil Nathan with the latter entering the final three. After Nathan was eliminated, the final two moved on to the Championships – Jonnalagadda and Nair. The latter won the competition.^[3]

References

1. "National Geographic Bee". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
2. "Oxford student named National Geographic Bee semi-finalist". Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
3. "Press". Archived from the original on May 30, 2016.
4. "Press". Archived from the original on May 30, 2016.