The 2014 US Geography Olympiad National Championships took place on Friday, April 25 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, and after the multiple choice exam and quiz bowl portions had finished… our champions were the exact same as last year’s in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions! Congratulations to Anton Karpovich of the Illinois Math and Science Academy (Aurora, IL) and Abhinav Kurada of the Advanced Math and Science Academy (Marlborough, MA) on their title defenses! Congratulations as well to Tine Valencic of Grapevine High School (Grapevine, TX), David Yuan of Lexington High School (Lexington, MA), and James Mullen of Monta Vista High School (Cupertino, CA) who together with Anton will represent the USA at the 2014 International Geography Olympiad in Krakow, Poland this summer! More information will follow soon on our team.
In the specific events, Anton won both the multiple choice and quiz bowl portions for the second straight year, while Tine, in his first USGO was the runner up in both. Varun Wadhwa of Delaware won bronze in the quiz bowl while David of Lexington took bronze in the Exam. In the Junior Varsity division, Jacob Polatty of Rhode Island won the gold medal in the exam, with Akhil Rekulapelli of Virginia, and Sai Mahit Vaddadi of Pennsylvania taking the bronze. Abhinav took gold in the JV quiz bowl with Pranav Sivakumar of Illinois taking silver and Alex Schmidt of Pennsylvania taking bronze.
Thanks to everyone who came and competed or helped us staff the event, and we look forward to our third National Championships in Arlington, VA on Friday, April 24, 2015 next year!
