The News Tribune reports that Alex Sjoholm, a sixth grader at Terrace Park Elementary in Mountlake Terrace, won the Washington state geography bee on Friday:
After studying every almanac at home for most of a year, Alec Sjoholm found himself in Parkland, of all places — his legacy as a geography whiz hanging on a question about a South Pacific island.
“The island of Rapa Nui,” the state Geographic Bee moderator read aloud Friday, “is more commonly referred to by what English language name?”
Alec, a sixth-grader from Terrace Park Elementary in Mountlake Terrace, had to wait.
His opponent, Alex Quast of Olympia, offered his answer first.
“Sri Lanka?” Nope.
Then Alec, 11, strode to the microphone.
“Easter Island,” he said coolly in front of about 400 people on the edge of their seats at Pacific Lutheran University.
Of course he was right. It was just like the almanac said.
In addition to $100, the “National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World”, Alex also wins an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. for the national finals May 25-26.
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