Click here to see a slideshow of the competition.

A Minot boy won the 2007 North Dakota National Geographic Bee competition.

Drew Penrod, an eighth-grader at Memorial Middle School, won in the championship round when his opponent, Matthew Delaney, missed his second question. A contestant is eliminated after two misses.

"When Ido something, I definitely want to go all the way," Drew said.

Drew correctly answered Shanghai to the final question. That city is the location of the tallest hotel in the world. Drew finished the bee having answered only one question wrong. He missed a question asking the name of the body of water bordered by the Northern Channel and St. Georges Channel. The answer was the Irish Sea.

Matthew correctly answered that question, and had answered every question correctly until the championship round. Matthew is an eighth-grader at Cheney Middle School in Fargo. He lives near Horace.

"Every one, I kept saying in my head, 'Let him know it,'" said Annette Delaney, Matthew's mother. She said it looked nerve-wracking for the students up on the stage, and it was impressive how they could answer the questions.

The geography bee asks students questions from a variety of geography disciplines. It can be physical geography, such as where a country is located; cultural geography, such as the food of a country; or economic geography, such as the commerce of a country.

The bee is for students in fourth through eighth grades. Students had to win a schoolwide geography bee and pass a written test to qualify for the state bee. In North Dakota, 101 students qualified. In Bismarck, 14 students qualified, and in Mandan, four students qualified.

Teachers and family watched the competition Friday at the University of Mary.

"I really think that he earned it," said Drew Penrod's brother, Jake. "He hasn't been outside a lot."

Jake, who is in third grade, sometimes studied with Drew. He will be eligible to enter the bee next year and plans to participate.

"With Drew's knowledge, it will help me study a lot," he said.

Drew started studying for this year's bee after he placed second at the 2006 bee. His parents would quiz him with questions similar to those in the bee and use atlases.

His father is in the Air Force, and he has an aunt who lives in London. He is working on a novel based in Brazil and wants to live in the Maldives off India. Some day, he wants to be a geography teacher.

"Every teacher would love to have him in the geography classroom," teacher Tracy Strand said. She was Drew's world geography teacher last year. He adds a lot to the classroom from his experiences traveling and has a knack for pronouncing hard-to-pronounce places, she said.

The third place winner was Brock Solberg, of Carrington. First place won $100 and a trip to the national bee in Washington, D.C. Second place won $75 and third place won $50. All students received a T-shirt and certificates.

The other finalists were Dani Hopkins, of Lisbon; Dan Rasmussen, of Bismarck; Matt Goldenberg, of Fargo; Quinn Bauer, of Grand Forks; Jason Grotte, of Thompson; Miles Seefeldt, of Milnor; and Samuel Savidge, of Williston.

The national bee is May 22-23 at the National Geographic Society. First place is a $25,000 college scholarship, second place is a $15,000 college scholarship and third place is a $10,000 college scholarship. The top 10 finalists receive $500 each.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)