Thirteen-year-old Eric Yang of Texas swept the toughest National Geographic Bee to date—with a perfect score. The Griffin Middle Schooler from The Colony, Texas won the annual competition during a tie-breaker round with this question: “Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country?” The answer is Romania. By winning the competition Eric Yang gets a U.S. $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands with Jeopardy! host and GeoBee moderator Alex Trebek.

Yang was one of ten finalists whittled down from 55 fourth to eighth graders during the GeoBee. The 55 contestants had beat out nearly five million students in their state bees to earn spots in the national championships. Second place goes to 14 year old Arjun Kandaswamy from Oregon.

Watch the tense final moments of the 2009 National Geographic Bee as host Alex Trebek grills the finalists in Washington, D.C. and crowns 2009 Geography Bee Champion Eric Yang