Defending champions from the previous year, “French-American Alliance,” swept the board and took home another win at the 7th annual Geography Bowl at Wayne State College.

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to get people to have fun celebrate Geography Awareness Week which is the third week in November,” said Lesli Rawlings professor of political science, geography and history.

Rawlings started teaching at Wayne State in 2010 and brought the Geography Bowl in 2011. This is the 7th annual consecutive Geography Bowl at Wayne State and is the 30th anniversary of Geography Awareness Week nationwide.

This year’s event included eight teams with two people per team.

A tough first round saw points juggling back and forth for all eight teams, but only four were allowed to the second round. French-American Alliance beat Havana Good Time by 22 to 15, Flat Earth Club dominated Squad with a score of 14 to 2, Two Clueless Americans beat Big Baller Brand with a tough score of 18 to 4 and Broncos-Vikings beat Salvage with a low scoring game of 4 to 2.

Starting the second round strong brought out two competitive teams with a close scoring match between the Flat Earth Club and the French-American Alliance. The French-American Alliance pulled out ahead to win the round and advance to the championship.

Two Clueless Americans also won the second round to continue to the championship round. They played Broncos-Vikings and beat them 20 to 0.

“Ready for the Ultimate smack down,” said emcee Eric Colvard before entering the championship round to see who would get the bragging rights of the 7th annual Geography Bowl champion.

French-American Alliance, including Nathan Pearson and Antoine Bardou, started strong in the championship with five consecutive points right at the start, but Two Clueless Americans, including Cory Frewing and Ashley VanMeeteren, fought back in the lighting round with four out of five points. French-American Alliance stole their one point they missed and executed their side of the lightning round perfect with five out of five questions correct.

“Crisis at the geography bowl,” said Colvard.

Confusion of a question delayed the bowl for a couple of minutes for the judges to debate a question.

After entering the last round of questions, French-American Alliance stayed strong and brought out the mercy rule on Two Clueless Americans with a score of 16 – 6, winning WSC’s Geography Bowl for the second year in a row.

“It’s a lot of hard work but I think it’s worth it in the end,” said Rawlings, “Everyone has a great time.”

Many volunteered to help out with the event. There were score keepers, time keepers, faculty judges, coordinators, M.C., set up and tear down crew and prize table distributors.

Baseball caps, hard cover notebooks, stress balls, car decals, world maps, beach balls, and many other prizes were handed out at the bowl said Rawlings. All of these prizes were donated by the Student Associate Board, Dr. Randy Bertolas, and the WSC Book Store.

“We’re looking forward to doing it again next year,” said Rawlings. “Making it an annual tradition, seven years in a row consecutively. I’m very appreciative of everyone’s hard work.”