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North Branch Middle School hosted the final round of the Geography Bee Dec. 15, which consisted of 11 students in a double elimination round to narrow it down to the two finalists. Five of the finalists had made it to the final round last year, too!

The winner was 7th grade student Ryan Hink! Hink answered one more question correctly than the second place finisher, 8th grader Landon DeFrance. Hink won on this question, which was the second question in a tiebreaker in the championship round:  

The Bab el Mandeb, a strait between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, connects the Gulf of Aden to which body of water? 

Answer: Red Sea

Hink will take a written test in the early January that will be sent to the National Geographic Society.  If he is one of the top 100 students across the state, he will qualify for the state bee in St. Cloud on March 31. All state champions are eligible to win the national championship and its first prize, a $50,000 college scholarship, at the national championship held in May in Washington, D.C.

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