Schools

The Clark Lane Geography Champion Is …

... Daniel Castelpoggi Edges Out Victory In School-Wide Competition

Clark Lane Middle School has a new geography bee champion: seventh-grader Daniel Castelpoggi of Team Turquoise.

“I was thrilled (to win),” Castelpoggi said.

Castelpoggi defeated eighth-grader Dylan Vitale in an overtime round to take the crown. School geography teacher Mark Higgins said it was the longest match he can remember in his 12 years of doing the competition.

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“It was awesome,” Higgins said. “And the kids did really great.”

What Is The Geography Bee?

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The Geography Bee is a nationwide competition that Clark Lane has been doing for years, Principal Jim Sachs said. It starts with each team (there are three teams in a grade, composed of about 90 students each) in the middle school having their own competition to find the winner of each, he said.

That leaves nine students to participate in the school-wide bee. This year, sixth graders Melissa Haring, Isabella Piccone and Quinn Ryan; seventh-graders Castelpoggi, Aiden McCarthy and Chole Murphy; and eighth-graders Nexhat Mucka, Vitale and Zachary Vontobel were the nine competitors.

The school-wide bee was held Friday, where participants orally answered harder and harder questions. Once a competitor got two questions wrong, he or she was eliminated.

That continued until just two remained, Castelpoggi and Vitale. Then the two were asked the same question, and both would write their answers on a white board.

Competition

Things intensified when both Castelpoggi and Vitale continued to mirror each other, either both getting the answer right or both getting the answer wrong. Finally, Castelpoggi pulled out the victory when he knew Mexico was the home of the ancient Mayans.

“I started to get nervous at the end,” he said after the competition. “I was happy to win, especially since I kind of guessed on the last question.”

Castelpoggi was awarded an atlas and all competitors were given a certificate of participation and a gift bag. Castelpoggi will now have the chance to compete in the state tournament.


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