26th National Geographic Bee

The 26th National Geographic Bee was held in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 2014, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Eighth-grader Akhil Rekulapelli, from Loudoun County, Virginia won the competition, beating out 52 other competitors representing the 50 U.S. states, Pacific territories, and Department of Defense dependent schools.[1]

In 2014, a record number of 9 perfect scores in the national preliminary competition was recorded. As a result, a sudden-death tiebreaker took place between 8 state representatives including contestants from Alabama, Utah, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois and Washington.

Akhil Rekulapelli, the 2014 National Geographic Bee Champion, received a $50,000 scholarship, a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and a trip for 2 to the Galapagos Islands. Ameya Mujumdar, the second-place finisher received $25,000. Tuvya Bergeson-Michelson, the third-place finisher received $10,000, and Pranit Nanda the fourth-place finisher received $1,000. Other top ten finishers received $500.

2014 state representatives

State Name School City/Town Grade
 Alabama Christian Gonzalez Huntsville Area Home Educators Harvest 8th
 Alaska J. Gray Harver Kodiak Middle School Kodiak 8th
 Arizona Ari Mehta Desert Cove E.S. Phoenix 6th
 Arkansas Christian Boekhout Hot Springs Intermediate School Hot Springs 8th
Puerto Rico United States Virgin Islands Atlantic Territories Jael King Alfredo Andrews School St. Croix 6th
 California Tuvya Bergson-Michelson The Nueva School San Carlos 7th 3rd Place
 Colorado Pranit Nanda Aurora Quest K-8 Aurora 8th 4th Place
 Connecticut John Phipps Middlesex Middle School Darien 6th

Finishing in 2nd place was Arjun Katechia from Glastonbury who attends Kingswood-Oxford Middle School.

 Delaware Sohan Shah The Independence School Newark 8th
Department of Defense Patrick Lewallen Ryukyu Middle School Japan 8th
 District of Columbia Quentin Powers St. Anselm's Abbey School District of Columbia 8th
 Florida Ameya Mujumdar Turner Elementary School Tampa 5th 2nd Place
 Georgia Ansel Ahabue Trickum Middle School Lilburn 8th 8th Place (tie)
 Hawaii Mika Ishii Kaimuki Middle School Honolulu 6th
 Idaho Amrit Singh Grangeville Elementary/Middle School Grangeville 8th
 Illinois Mantra Dave Chiddix Jr. High School Normal 6th
 Indiana Sean Ives Trinity Lutheran School Crown Point 8th
 Iowa Shirlin Kingston Ames Homeschool Assistance Program Ames 5th
 Kansas Chinmay Patil California Trail Middle School Olathe 6th
 Kentucky Nikhil Krishna Corbin Middle School Corbin 8th
 Louisiana Benjamin Link St. Andrew’s Episcopal School New Orleans 8th
 Maine Vincent Falardeau Saco Middle School Saco 8th
 Maryland Abhinav Karthikeyan Clearspring Elementary School Damascus 5th
 Massachusetts Nicholas Rommel Diamond Middle School Lexington 7th 8th Place (tie)
 Michigan Philip Huang Washtenaw County Home Educators Ann Arbor 8th
 Minnesota Lucas Eggers Hennepin County Homeschool Eden Prairie 6th
 Mississippi Victoria Gong St. Aloysius Vicksburg 7th
 Missouri Evan Hensel Wentzville Middle School Wentzville 8th
 Montana Jesse Zhang Target Range School Missoula 8th
 Nebraska Brendan Pennington Prairie Lane Elementary School Omaha 5th
 Nevada Benjamin Hand Hyde Park Middle School Las Vegas 8th
 New Hampshire Kevin Owens Ross A. Lurgio Middle School Bedford 7th
 New Jersey Charles Mills Trinity Christian School Montville 7th

Finishing in second place was Karan Menon of John Adams Middle School in Edison, who would later become the 2015 National Geographic Bee Champion.

 New Mexico Gabriel Cuneo Shepherd Lutheran Albuquerque 8th
 New York Gabriel Straus Collegiate School for Boys Manhattan 8th
 North Carolina Sravya Kuchibhotla Davis Drive Middle School Cary 7th
  North Dakota Erik Johnson Bismarck Mandan Home Educators Bismarck 8th
 Ohio Kyle Yu Lee Burneson Middle School Westlake 8th 6th Place
 Oklahoma Aniket Dehardrai Whittier Middle School Norman 8th
 Oregon Tor Parsons Roosevelt Middle School Eugene 7th
American Samoa Guam Northern Mariana Islands Pacific Territories Alex Eagan Pacific Horizons School Pago Pago 6th
 Pennsylvania Ramya Muthukrishnan E.N. Pierce Middle School West Chester 8th
 Rhode Island Maxwell Levine Wheeler School Providence 8th 8th Place (tie)
 South Carolina Krish Patel Pinewood Preparatory School Summerville 8th 5th Place
 South Dakota Bridger Gordon Sturgis Williams Middle School Sturgis 8th
 Tennessee Christopher Damon Meigs Middle Magnet School Nashville 8th
 Texas Benjamin Benjadol Central Junior High School Euless 7th
 Utah Gauri Garg Bear River Charter School Logan 7th
 Vermont Nicholas Norton Essex Middle School Essex Junction 7th
 Virginia Akhil Rekulapelli Stone Hill Middle School Ashburn 8th 2014 National Champion
 Washington Andrew Ma The Evergreen School Shoreline 8th
 West Virginia Andrew Christy St. Francis Central Catholic School Morgantown 8th
 Wisconsin Asha Jain MHLT Elementary School Minocqua 8th 7th Place; was on the winning team at the 2013 World Geographic Bee Championship with Gopi Ramanathan, from Minnesota, and Neelam Sandhu, from New Hampshire
 Wyoming Degory Day Aspen Elementary School Evanston 5th

References

Preceded by
25th National Geographic Bee
26th National Geographic Bee
2014
Succeeded by
27th National Geographic Bee
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