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The answer to this question -- Hue -- won 14-year-old Caitlin
Snaring from Redmond, Wash., a $25,000 college scholarship Wednesday
at the 19th annual National Geographic Bee. Caitlin is only the
second girl to win in the bee's history. "I don't know why more
girls aren't interested in geography," she told reporters after
winning the championship round. "I wanted a girl winner this year."
This was Caitlin's second time representing Washington state at
the competition, which challenges 10- to 14-year-olds' knowledge of
geography, culture and geology. Last year she was eliminated in the
preliminary round. Her father, David Snaring, said she started
studying for the 2007 bee the day after her loss. She even studied
while attending her brother's baseball games, he said.
This time around, Caitlin did not miss a single question in two
days of intense competition.
During her introductory banter with the bee's moderator,
"Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek, Caitlin revealed that her other
passion is studying the history of pottery and making ceramic
replicas. Recently, her interests have been particularly captured by
Greek and Minoan pottery, she said.
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 Besides her father, Caitlin was joined by her mother, Traci
Snaring, and 13-year-old brother, Carl. Her grandmothers, Selma
Snaring and Betty Hedge, also attended.
Suneil Iyer, 12, from Olathe, Kan., came in second. He won a
$15,000 college scholarship. Third-place contestant, Mark Arildsen,
13, from Nashville, Tenn., won a $10,000 college scholarship. All of
the top 10 finalists won $500 for advancing beyond the preliminary
round.
Fifty-five participants between fifth and eighth grade came to
Washington, D.C., to compete in the national bee. They represented
the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S.
Virgin Islands, the Pacific Territories and schools dependent on the Department of
Defense. The group was narrowed down to 10
finalists during the first round of competition Tuesday.
[Text copied
from file received from AP
Digital; article by Natasha T. Metzler, Associated Press writer]
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