Our Charleston trip is over, and has left us proud and with many lasting memories. After getting in late Thursday night, things began Friday morning with an excellent breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. Once registration and welcome speakers at the Charleston Civic Center, the preliminary rounds of the WV State Geography Bee were underway.
For the preliminary rounds, the 85 or so participants were divided into four groups, the goal of which were to find the top 10 finalists for the afternoon’s final competition. There were eight rounds of scoring competition, with questions ranging from basic general geography to more subtle questions regarding region, climate, and world events. The preliminary rounds were not elimination rounds; rather, cumulative scores were kept and combined with all the four groups to produce the top 10 finalists. In the group that Anthony was a part of, there was only one perfect score. His. Obviously, we felt that the other groups would have similar scores, and Anthony would be participating in the final rounds.
Between the preliminary and championship rounds, a tiebreaker round was needed. There were five students that scored perfectly in the preliminary round, and seven students that scored 7 of 8. These seven students competed for the final five spots open in the finals in a single-elmination round. After that, it was time for the final competition.
The final rounds were double-elimination. Each of the ten finalists could miss up to two questions, at which point they would be eliminated. One by one, up on the Civic Center’s Little Theatre stage, the students began dropping.
Anthony still hadn’t missed a question in the entire competition until his final two questions. Once he missed the modern name for Lacus Lemannus (Lake Geneva — which, I think, he should have known, but later he told me he just didn’t) he missed his second question in a row, causing him to be eliminated from competition. He and another young man were elminated in the same round, tied for fourth place. A top five finish. Very difficult to be better than that.
After a nice awards ceremony, some nice discussion with other parents and a local reporter, we headed for home. Exhausted, exhilarated, and very proud.
I’ll never get used to driving in the city, and, even though the Charleston Civic Center is a pretty easy place to get in and out of, it still took me a couple of tries to get back on the Interstate. Interstate driving is fun, though, and once on 79, the rest is easy. My brother Greg called us on the way home, and we met him, my sister Amy, and their respective SOs in Morgantown for an unexpected and wonderful dinner. Then it was “Back to the Interstate, Ben Stone” and back to New Creek, where cats and boys alike were happy to see us, and us, them.
We are expecting our next trip to our state capital will be for the Golden Horseshoe awards, should Anthony do well enough on that exam. The ceremonies for that take place in the Capitol building, where he would be knighted by the governor. I did not win a Golden Horseshoe award (stupid Grose-y beat me out) but Greg did, along with his best friend Chris, and I remember that ceremony very well. I’d like to experience it again, but we’ll see. I certainly like his chances. We’ll take the whole bunch to that.
I want to thank all of you that responded to my request for help. I think I’ve thanked all of you personally, but, in case I missed it, thank you very much. We weren’t sure how we were going to be able to make this trip. Your generosity made it a much easier trip.
