The annual Jeopardy! College Championship comes to a close tonight, February 14. Let’s hope it’s a sweet one for Goucher student Sarah Bart, who showed those other competitors who’s boss during last week’s semi-final round, and clinched a spot in tonight’s final.
After a slow-ish start — Bart trailed George Washington sophomore Jaime Alayon by $4,000 at the first commercial break — Bart quickly made up the difference. By the end of the Double Jeopardy round, Bart had $25,800; Greer Mackabee, a senior at Duke, had $14,400, and poor Alayon had a mere $3,200. Both of Bart’s competitors botched the final answer (Category: Characters in Poetry. Answer: “The name of this title heroine of a 1847 poem is from the Greek for ‘good news.'” Bart ended up with a whopping $29,300; she’d gotten 28 answers correct (including two Daily Doubles), and three questions wrong.
If you’re so inclined, you can test yourself against all the questions from Bart’s game here. The correct response for the Final Jeopardy! Round? Evangeline. I was an English major, and I had no idea. Which is why I’m not on Jeopardy.
The (surprisingly numerous!) Jeopardy discussion boards and recap sites had plenty to say about Bart’s victory. “We thought this was one where you didn’t necessarily need to know Longfellow and his epic poem ‘Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie’ to get it. Knowing the etymology of the word evangelist would have done it, but then Evangline isn’t the only feminine form of that word as a name, so maybe you would have to know Longfellow after all,” one sniffed. More power to Bart that she did. If you don’t have a hot date (or even if you do), we suggest tuning in tonight to watch Bart try for the $100,000 grand prize.
