Evanston resident and Northwestern University student Benjamin Keown was eliminated from the “Jeopardy!” College Championship competition Monday.
Keown was leading most of the game, but gave the wrong response in the final round of the semi-final game.
Keown went into Final Jeopardy! as the leader, with $28,600 on the board. Tyler Combs, a senior at Indiana University, had $16,400 and Kayla Kalhor, a sophomore at University of Florida, had $13,000.
But Keown was stumped by the Final Jeopardy prompt, “This word for a concept in Eastern religion comes from Latin roots for ‘made in flesh’ and ‘again’.”
Both Combs and Kalhor answered correctly: “What is reincarnation?”
Combs wagered his entire earnings on the question, winning the game with $32,400. He will advance to the tournament’s final round.
Keown’s answer, “What is orthodox?” was incorrect and lost him the game.
The episode was part of the 2020 College Championship, which included representatives from 15 universities around the nation participating in the tournament-style event.
Keown finished second in the first round, but earned a high enough score to qualify for a wild card in the semi-finals, he said.
The episode taped in February in Los Angeles, weeks before the coronavirus travel restrictions took effect.
The mechanical engineering student and Evanston Township High School grad was the only freshman who made it to the competition.
