Congratulations to Eugene Wang of BASIS Tucson North (AZ) and Kyle Yu of Westlake High School (OH), the 2016 Varsity and JV USGO National Champions!

The United States Geography Olympiad held its 2016 Varsity and Junior Varsity National Championships on Friday, April 22 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA with 81 Varsity and 99 Junior Varsity students competing from throughout the USA. After a multiple choice exam, a written exam, and a Geography-themed quiz bowl tournament, Eugene Wang of BASIS Tuscon North in Tucson, AZ in Varsity and Kyle Yu of Westlake High School in Westlake, OH in Junior Varsity emerged as the 2016 National Champions! Eugene also secured a spot on Team USA for the 2016 International Geography Olympiad in Beijing, China this August, where he will be joined by Quiz Bowl tournament champion Jakob Myers (Naperville North High School, Naperville, IL), Multiple Choice Exam champion Matthew Janson (Providence High School, Charlotte, NC) and Written Exam champion A.J. Manning of (Bartow International Baccalaureate High School, Bartow, FL). Full Varsity results are now available here.

In the Junior Varsity Division, the Quiz Bowl Tournament and the Multiple Choice Exam were both won by Karan Menon of J.P. Stevens High School (Edison, NJ) while Kyle won the Written Exam along with the overall title. Full Junior Varsity results are now available here.

Many thanks to every one who assisted with the competition, especially US National Team coaches Raynell Cooper and Jason Flowers who primarily wrote the exams, and NHBB/USGO Director of Question Production Brad Fischer, who oversaw the development of the Quiz Bowl Tournament questions.

The US Geography Olympiad’s Elementary and Middle School National Championships will take place on June 10 in Chicago – please contact Mr. Eric Huff at eric@historybee.com or see www.historybee.com (follow the USGO and/or registration links) if you have further questions on that. The 2016-17 National Qualifying Exams will then begin again in October 2016. Thanks for your support of USGO throughout the 2015-16 academic year, and good luck to Eugene, A.J., Matthew, and Jakob in China this summer at the 2016 iGeo!