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
Alabama	Christian Gonzalez	Huntsville Area Home Educators	Harvest	8th
Alaska	J. Gray Harver	Kodiak Middle School	Kodiak	8th
Arizona	Ari Mehta	Desert Cove E.S.	Phoenix	6th
Arkansas	Christian Boekhout	Hot Springs Intermediate School	Hot Springs	8th
Atlantic Territories	Jael King	Alfredo Andrews School	St. Croix	6th
California	Tuvya Bergson-Michelson	The Nueva School	San Carlos	7th	3rd Place
Colorado	Pranit Nanda	Aurora Quest K-8	Aurora	8th	4th Place
Connecticut	John Phipps	Middlesex Middle School	Darien	6th Finishing in 2nd place was Arjun Katechia from Glastonbury who attends Kingswood-Oxford Middle School.
Delaware	Sohan Shah	The Independence School	Newark	8th
Department of Defense	Patrick Lewallen	Ryukyu Middle School	Japan	8th
District of Columbia	Quentin Powers	St. Anselm's Abbey School	District of Columbia	8th
Florida	Ameya Mujumdar	Turner Elementary School	Tampa	5th	2nd Place
Georgia	Ansel Ahabue	Trickum Middle School	Lilburn	8th	8th Place (tie)
Hawaii	Mika Ishii	Kaimuki Middle School	Honolulu	6th
Idaho	Amrit Singh	Grangeville Elementary/Middle School	Grangeville	8th
Illinois	Mantra Dave	Chiddix Jr. High School	Normal	6th
Indiana	Sean Ives	Trinity Lutheran School	Crown Point	8th
Iowa	Shirlin Kingston	Ames Homeschool Assistance Program	Ames	5th
Kansas	Chinmay Patil	California Trail Middle School	Olathe	6th
Kentucky	Nikhil Krishna	Corbin Middle School	Corbin	8th
Louisiana	Benjamin Link	St. Andrew’s Episcopal School	New Orleans	8th
Maine	Vincent Falardeau	Saco Middle School	Saco	8th
Maryland	Abhinav Karthikeyan	Clearspring Elementary School	Damascus	5th
Massachusetts	Nicholas Rommel	Diamond Middle School	Lexington	7th	8th Place (tie)
Michigan	Philip Huang	Washtenaw County Home Educators	Ann Arbor	8th
Minnesota	Lucas Eggers	Hennepin County Homeschool	Eden Prairie	6th
Mississippi	Victoria Gong	St. Aloysius	Vicksburg	7th
Missouri	Evan Hensel	Wentzville Middle School	Wentzville	8th
Montana	Jesse Zhang	Target Range School	Missoula	8th
Nebraska	Brendan Pennington	Prairie Lane Elementary School	Omaha	5th
Nevada	Benjamin Hand	Hyde Park Middle School	Las Vegas	8th
New Hampshire	Kevin Owens	Ross A. Lurgio Middle School	Bedford	7th
New Jersey	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.
New Mexico	Gabriel Cuneo	Shepherd Lutheran	Albuquerque	8th
New York	Gabriel Straus	Collegiate School for Boys	Manhattan	8th
North Carolina	Sravya Kuchibhotla	Davis Drive Middle School	Cary	7th
North Dakota	Erik Johnson	Bismarck Mandan Home Educators	Bismarck	8th
Ohio	Kyle Yu	Lee Burneson Middle School	Westlake	8th	6th Place
Oklahoma	Aniket Dehardrai	Whittier Middle School	Norman	8th
Oregon	Tor Parsons	Roosevelt Middle School	Eugene	7th
Pacific Territories	Alex Eagan	Pacific Horizons School	Pago Pago	6th
Pennsylvania	Ramya Muthukrishnan	E.N. Pierce Middle School	West Chester	8th
Rhode Island	Maxwell Levine	Wheeler School	Providence	8th	8th Place (tie)
South Carolina	Krish Patel	Pinewood Preparatory School	Summerville	8th	5th Place
South Dakota	Bridger Gordon	Sturgis Williams Middle School	Sturgis	8th
Tennessee	Christopher Damon	Meigs Middle Magnet School	Nashville	8th
Texas	Benjamin Benjadol	Central Junior High School	Euless	7th
Utah	Gauri Garg	Bear River Charter School	Logan	7th
Vermont	Nicholas Norton	Essex Middle School	Essex Junction	7th
Virginia	Akhil Rekulapelli	Stone Hill Middle School	Ashburn	8th	2014 National Champion
Washington	Andrew Ma	The Evergreen School	Shoreline	8th
West Virginia	Andrew Christy	St. Francis Central Catholic School	Morgantown	8th
Wisconsin	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
Wyoming	Degory Day	Aspen Elementary School	Evanston	5th

References