26th National Geographic Bee
The 26th National Geographic Bee was held in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 2014, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.
Eighth-grader Akhil Rekulapelli, from Loudoun County, Virginia won the competition, beating out 52 other competitors representing the 50 U.S. states, Pacific territories, and Department of Defense dependent schools.[1]
In 2014, a record number of 9 perfect scores in the national preliminary competition was recorded. As a result, a sudden-death tiebreaker took place between 8 state representatives including contestants from Alabama, Utah, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois and Washington.
Akhil Rekulapelli, the 2014 National Geographic Bee Champion, received a $50,000 scholarship, a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and a trip for 2 to the Galapagos Islands. Ameya Mujumdar, the second-place finisher received $25,000. Tuvya Bergeson-Michelson, the third-place finisher received $10,000, and Pranit Nanda the fourth-place finisher received $1,000. Other top ten finishers received $500.
2014 state representatives
State | Name | School | City/Town | Grade | |
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Christian Gonzalez | Huntsville Area Home Educators | Harvest | 8th | |
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J. Gray Harver | Kodiak Middle School | Kodiak | 8th | |
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Ari Mehta | Desert Cove E.S. | Phoenix | 6th | |
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Christian Boekhout | Hot Springs Intermediate School | Hot Springs | 8th | |
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Jael King | Alfredo Andrews School | St. Croix | 6th | |
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Tuvya Bergson-Michelson | The Nueva School | San Carlos | 7th | 3rd Place |
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Pranit Nanda | Aurora Quest K-8 | Aurora | 8th | 4th Place |
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John Phipps | Middlesex Middle School | Darien | 6th
Finishing in 2nd place was Arjun Katechia from Glastonbury who attends Kingswood-Oxford Middle School. | |
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Sohan Shah | The Independence School | Newark | 8th | |
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Patrick Lewallen | Ryukyu Middle School | Japan | 8th | |
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Quentin Powers | St. Anselm's Abbey School | District of Columbia | 8th | |
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Ameya Mujumdar | Turner Elementary School | Tampa | 5th | 2nd Place |
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Ansel Ahabue | Trickum Middle School | Lilburn | 8th | 8th Place (tie) |
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Mika Ishii | Kaimuki Middle School | Honolulu | 6th | |
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Amrit Singh | Grangeville Elementary/Middle School | Grangeville | 8th | |
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Mantra Dave | Chiddix Jr. High School | Normal | 6th | |
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Sean Ives | Trinity Lutheran School | Crown Point | 8th | |
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Shirlin Kingston | Ames Homeschool Assistance Program | Ames | 5th | |
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Chinmay Patil | California Trail Middle School | Olathe | 6th | |
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Nikhil Krishna | Corbin Middle School | Corbin | 8th | |
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Benjamin Link | St. Andrew’s Episcopal School | New Orleans | 8th | |
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Vincent Falardeau | Saco Middle School | Saco | 8th | |
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Abhinav Karthikeyan | Clearspring Elementary School | Damascus | 5th | |
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Nicholas Rommel | Diamond Middle School | Lexington | 7th | 8th Place (tie) |
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Philip Huang | Washtenaw County Home Educators | Ann Arbor | 8th | |
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Lucas Eggers | Hennepin County Homeschool | Eden Prairie | 6th | |
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Victoria Gong | St. Aloysius | Vicksburg | 7th | |
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Evan Hensel | Wentzville Middle School | Wentzville | 8th | |
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Jesse Zhang | Target Range School | Missoula | 8th | |
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Brendan Pennington | Prairie Lane Elementary School | Omaha | 5th | |
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Benjamin Hand | Hyde Park Middle School | Las Vegas | 8th | |
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Kevin Owens | Ross A. Lurgio Middle School | Bedford | 7th | |
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Charles Mills | Trinity Christian School | Montville | 7th
Finishing in second place was Karan Menon of John Adams Middle School in Edison, who would later become the 2015 National Geographic Bee Champion. | |
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Gabriel Cuneo | Shepherd Lutheran | Albuquerque | 8th | |
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Gabriel Straus | Collegiate School for Boys | Manhattan | 8th | |
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Sravya Kuchibhotla | Davis Drive Middle School | Cary | 7th | |
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Erik Johnson | Bismarck Mandan Home Educators | Bismarck | 8th | |
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Kyle Yu | Lee Burneson Middle School | Westlake | 8th | 6th Place |
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Aniket Dehardrai | Whittier Middle School | Norman | 8th | |
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Tor Parsons | Roosevelt Middle School | Eugene | 7th | |
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Alex Eagan | Pacific Horizons School | Pago Pago | 6th | |
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Ramya Muthukrishnan | E.N. Pierce Middle School | West Chester | 8th | |
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Maxwell Levine | Wheeler School | Providence | 8th | 8th Place (tie) |
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Krish Patel | Pinewood Preparatory School | Summerville | 8th | 5th Place |
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Bridger Gordon | Sturgis Williams Middle School | Sturgis | 8th | |
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Christopher Damon | Meigs Middle Magnet School | Nashville | 8th | |
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Benjamin Benjadol | Central Junior High School | Euless | 7th | |
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Gauri Garg | Bear River Charter School | Logan | 7th | |
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Nicholas Norton | Essex Middle School | Essex Junction | 7th | |
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Akhil Rekulapelli | Stone Hill Middle School | Ashburn | 8th | 2014 National Champion |
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Andrew Ma | The Evergreen School | Shoreline | 8th | |
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Andrew Christy | St. Francis Central Catholic School | Morgantown | 8th | |
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Asha Jain | MHLT Elementary School | Minocqua | 8th | 7th Place; was on the winning team at the 2013 World Geographic Bee Championship with Gopi Ramanathan, from Minnesota, and Neelam Sandhu, from New Hampshire |
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Degory Day | Aspen Elementary School | Evanston | 5th |
References
Preceded by 25th National Geographic Bee |
26th National Geographic Bee 2014 |
Succeeded by 27th National Geographic Bee |