State geography bee winner named

Ten finalists in grades four through eight made it to the final round of the National Geographic State Bee. Once a student missed two questions they were excused from the round.

It came down to Connor Dunstan from Nampa and Nicholas Monahan from McCall. Nick won last year’s bee. They were asked three questions.

The final question was: In 2015, scientists sent a camera into Kavachi, an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean, and were surprised to discover two shark species inside despite the threat of eruptions. This volcano is located near the New Georgia Islands in which country?

The answer is Solomon Islands. Neither contestant got it right, but Nicholas got the first two questions and Conner missed one. So Nicholas wins the state contest two years in a row.

He gets to go to Washington, D.C., for the national finals in May.