Hudson Cripe woke up this morning feeling pretty good about his chances to win today's Geography Bee at Benton. Admitting he didn't cram any last minute map studies or try to memorize the 50 states in alphabetical order, Cripe just rolled into the finals of the Bee and gave it his best shot.
After not even making the final a year ago as a fourth grader, Cripe reigned supreme this year as a fifth grader representing Benton as the Geography Bee champion.
“It's fun because I didn't get any right last year,” Cripe said in the hallway following his win Monday afternoon. “I just went with it.”
Cripe and nine other finalists were given three rounds of questions involving knowledge of continents, United States locations and then geography relating to the relocation of the red wolf, where the elimination rounds began.
Three were initially eliminated, then three more in round four on questions relating to continents and oceans. That left a final four to decipher a map reading question on which African country most resembled the shape of South Africa, which Cripe and Kenzie Elder both got correct, but the other two did not, leaving the two to battle in the final round.
“I knew Ghana was smaller and Algeria wasn't shaped the same, so it had to be Ethiopia,” explained Cripe on his selection to reach the finals.
Proctor Jeff Hershberger then gave Cripe and Elder a set of three questions, the one with the top score of the three named the winner. If both tied, they would move on to another set. That second set never happened as Elder missed all three of her guesses, while Cripe hit one of the three. Given an anecdote about the final slave ship that was discovered in Mobile residing in what state, Cripe guessed Alabama.
“I knew it couldn't have been anything else because it was the Gulf of Mexico, so it was really only a couple states,” explained Cripe on his winning pick of Alabama. “Just pick one of those. I knew it couldn't have been Texas, so I just picked one of the others. Maybe I got a little lucky, I guess.”
Each of the 10 contestants were given a certificate for reaching the Geography Bee finals as well as a commemorative $1 coin. Per Hershberger, Cripe is now eligible to represent Benton and compete in an online geography tournament later this spring.