When defending Madison Middle School geography bee champion, Sean Keller, missed a question about tornados midway through the preliminary round, his confidence was shaken, but he got his confidence back.

"By the end of the round, when I realized that no one had gotten through with a perfect score."

As it turned out, Keller was perfect the rest of the day. Thus the two-time Schmitz Park Elementary champion became the two-time Madison Middle School champion too, last Wednesday at the school.

Tim Owens, sixth-grade Eastern Hemisphere teacher moderated the Madison bee. Twenty-four previously qualified students from all three grades were invited to the competition. The National Geographic Society provided the questions and prescribed the rules. Its Bee is open to fourth through eighth grades.

The preliminary round, of seven questions each, eliminated 14. The succeeding double-elimination round-of-10 was tense. After three questions, six students remained. Then this single question eliminated 5: "Profitable farms called bonanza farms were established in the late 1800s in the Red River Valley. Some of the largest were found in the area around Fargo in which state?"

Evidently, only Keller knew that Fargo is in North Dakota.

Bee rules require one third place, and two contestants to engage in a Championship Round. With no misses, Keller was already in. Who would break the five-way tie to challenge him?

The tie-breaker was sudden-death. The first question eliminated three, including sixth-grader Maggie Molvik, the last girl standing in this boy-dominated field of study. Molvik tied for fourth. Now only seventh-grader Jesse Simpson and sixth-grader Michael Stewart remained. Simpson missed his next question, opening the door for Stewart, but Stewart missed, too. Simpson answered his next question correctly; so did Stewart. Then Simpson missed again. Stewart did not. Jesse Simpson claimed third place, and Stewart started with a clean slate against Keller.

The Championship Round consisted of three questions requiring written answers: (1) "Name the independent country located entirely within the city of Rome." (2) "India borders two landlocked countries to the north. Name one." Stewart missed "Vatican City." Both correctly answered "Nepal."

If Stewart's answer to the third question were correct, and Keller's not, there would be another tie. (3) "A U.S. island territory, where the official languages are English and Chamorro, has the motto, 'Where America's Day Begins.' Name the territory." Keller wrote "Guam." The school championship was his again. Michael Stewart became vice-champion. Sean Keller will next take a proctored national written test in order to qualify for the state-level bee, which is traditionally held at Pacific Lutheran University.

He has competed at the state bee every year since 2005.

John Leonard may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com