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Westford 8th Grader Finishes Second In National Geographic Bee

WASHINGTON (CBS) – A 14-year-old from Westford is this year's runner-up in the National Geographic Bee.

Saketh Jonnalagadda, an eighth-grader at Stony Brook Middle School, finished second to 12-year-old Rishi Nair of Florida on Wednesday.

Saketh beat out all but one of 3 million students who took part in the competition, which will be aired Friday at 8 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel.

The final question was "A new marine sanctuary will protect sharks and other wildlife around Isla Wolf in which archipelago in the Pacific Ocean?" The answer was the Galápagos Islands.

Saketh did not go home empty-handed. He won a $25,000 college scholarship.

In an interview with The Lowell Sun, Saketh said he would spend up to six hours a day studying geography in preparation for the contest.

"It's definitely a little disappointing because I was so close, but I'm not sad about my achievement," he told the newspaper.

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