Goebel is MES geography bee champ
Staff writer
Starting with 32 and ending with one, Marion Elementary School fourth, fifth, and sixth graders competed for approximately one and one-half hours Thursday afternoon for the school's geography bee championship.
After six rounds and one final championship round, the winner turned out to be fourth grader Dylan Goebel. Taking second place honors was Connor Thierolf, sixth grader.
As school winner, Goebel will take a written test which will be submitted to the state geography bee to determine whether or not he will continue in the process.
Marion Middle School also names a geography bee winner.
During Thursday's contest at MES, the students fielded questions that Ken Jennings — the "Jeopardy" contestant with the show's longest winning streak — might even have found difficult.
Minus the fancy technology, the final round between Goebel and Thierolf looked something like "final Jeopardy," as the boys were given a question and 15 seconds to write their answers on a sheet of paper.
One of the final questions was: A European country which borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea is the world's leading producer of olive oil. Name the country?
The answer is "Spain."
MES principal Stan Ploutz said individual classroom competitions were held earlier narrowing the field to four contestants and one alternate from each fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classroom.
Following are the class champions:
Fourth grade — Christian Larson, Dylan Goebel, and Elizabeth Goentzel.
Fifth grade — Caroline Collett and Quinn Shoemaker.
Sixth grade — E.J. Obermeyer, Madison Chamberland, and Patrick Hodson.
Other students qualifying for the all-school bee competition were:
Fourth grade — Cara Martin, Jordan Hett, James Svoboda, Monica Spachek, Evan Slater, Jennifer Fruechting, Tyler Wildin, Brayden Putter, and Ericka Herzet. Alternates were Whitney Christensen, Nicholas Davies, and Eric Regnier.
Fifth grade — Taylor Harms, Jared Vondenkamp, and Samantha Eickleberry, Justin Rahe, Royce Ross, and Beth Nesser. Alternates were Lexie Kruse and Leah James.
Sixth grade — Andrew Shipman, Jocelyn Cardenas, Rickie DeShazo, Kayla Williams, Connor Thierolf, Cody DiLoreto, Raelene Allen, Dane Purkeypile, and Randy Regnier. Alternates were Heather Fine, Matt Sprowls, and Adam Cope.
