Northwest Christian student eligible for geography bee

Newton — Northwest Christian School's history teachers held a preliminary competition for this year's 25th annual National Geographic Bee. During this preliminary competition, fourth through eighth grade students answered one question in each of seven rounds. A large number of students performed well, correctly answering between five and seven questions and forcing a tie-breaking round to choose the final participants.

After the tie breaker, 10 students qualified for the finals to determine a grand champion for the preliminary competition: Kyle Grossi, Sophia Sandgran, Leah Cotton, Kaitlyn Verney, Caleb Lamberson, George Qarmout, Ryan Colarusso, Mary Kate Allison, John Breiling and Anton Scheuermann.

In the end, Kaitlyn Verney was crowned the winner and made history—becoming the first ever fifth-grader to place in first in the school competition. Kaitlyn received a medal and will take a written test that will be submitted to the National Geographic Society in order to be considered for the national competition, which will be held May 20-22 in Washington D.C. and offer a scholarship of $25,000 as its top prize.