Plains boy qualifies for statewide geo bee

If any of the 100 students competing in the Montana National Geographic Bee should be able to locate Luck, a town in Polk County, Wis., with a population of 881, it probably would be the Plains eighth-grader competing in the bee.

Carter Montgomery will be amongst the top 100 geography whizzes in the state competing in the bee April 4, at Montana State University-Billings, even though he didn't finish first in the Plains' eighth-grade bee.

Sierra Abromeit actually won the eighth-grade bee, but had to bail out just before the schoolwide competition, leaving alternates Montgomery and Kristel Hanke left to fight for her spot.

Montgomery defeated Hanke in the head-to-head competition and went on to beat out the seven other students in the school bee to win his second school geography bee in the past couple of years. Montgomery won the Plains geography bee when he was a sixth-grader, but didn't qualify for the state bee.

This year, after winning the school bee, the 14-year-old finished in the top 100 in the state on a 70-question test to qualify for the Billings competition.

“It was pretty tough. There were a few things that confused me,” Montgomery said of the qualifying test.

He said he was a little surprised that he did well enough to move on to the state level.

“It only takes the top 100 in the state, so it's pretty rare, I guess,” he said.

It is rare for a Plains student to qualify for a state bee, said Les Carpenter, the moderator for the Plains bee and Montgomery's eighth-grade history teacher. Carpenter said that he has been moderating the Plains' bee for nine years and this is only the second or third time a Horseman has advanced to the state bee.

He said when you think about how many schools in Montana had geography bees, that Montgomery joined some elite company by qualifying for the state bee.

“He'll be up there with the best students in Montana,” Carpenter said.

“Pretty cool,” Montgomery said is how it feels about making it to the statewide bee. He said he is looking forward to going to Billings with his parents.

“It's at the university, so I get to see that, so that will be cool,” he said. Montgomery said that he has been studying a little bit each day for the bee.

He said he has been going on the National Geographic's Web site almost daily to take their 10-question test to prepare for the bee.

Carpenter said the competition at the bee is pretty stiff and Montgomery will have to do a lot of studying if he wants to finish high. “If he could make the finals, it would be a very good showing,” he said.

Carpenter said the questions at the state bee are also going to be tough. He said the questions will touch on subjects like economics and current affairs and involve more than just plain geography. “It's more than just memorization,” Carpenter said.

Another thing that makes the state geography bee tougher than the school bee is stage fright, said Carpenter.

He said if Montgomery is able to make it through the early rounds and make it to the final 10, he will have to answer his questions in front of 300-to-400 spectators at the Petro Hall.

Despite the tough questions and the intimidation factor, Carpenter said the state bee is a great experience for the students and most of them enjoy it.

“I've been down there. It's a lot of fun,” said Carpenter. He said that he is sure that Montgomery will do fine at the bee and can handle the pressure.

He said besides being a solid student, Montgomery was also the quarterback for the junior high football team and a star on the county champion basketball team. “He's a well-rounded individual,” Carpenter said.

The winner of the Montana bee will join the winner from each state and territory for the national competition, which will be held May 20 and 21 at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. The final round of the 2008 National Geographic Bee will air on the National Geographic Channel May 21 and feature Alex Trebek.

The winner of the nationwide competition wins a $25,000 scholarship and a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society.

The last time a Montana student won the bee was in 1994, when Anders Knopse correctly identified Portugal as being the country the Tagus River roughly divides into two agriculture regions.