With the victory, Zheng advanced to the second round of the 19th annual National Geographic Bee along with CCS sixth-grader Jacob Miller, who won the middle school geography bee in December.

"It feels really good," said a grinning Zheng after the competition ended. "I didn’t expect to even get to the finals."

Zheng was one of five contestants to make it through an opening round in which students were tested on their knowledge of national parks and state geography. The 10 contestants were given a map of the United States that only provided state borders and national park markings. State and city names were not provided.

All of the contestants were then asked a question related to one of the parks and then had 15 seconds to write on a sheet of paper in which state the park was located. Students with two or more wrong answers were then eliminated.

In the next round, the remaining five students were asked to answer questions about U.S. geography. Each student was given a unique question to answer, and students who answered two wrong were eliminated until the final three contestants remained.

In the third round, Zheng, Joseph Katz and Melissa Townsend were asked difficult questions about world geography, something fifth-grade teacher Deborah Kiser said they haven’t had much time to study yet.

Zheng answered her first question correctly (What is the largest city in Australia? Answer: Syndey), but missed her second one (What African country borders Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea? Answer: Libya). However, both Katz and Townsend missed their first two questions and were eliminated, making Zheng the winner.

Katz and Townsend then answered world geography questions in a final round to determine which would be the runner-up.

Zheng, 10, is the daughter of Wenli and Jing Luan Zheng of Cooperstown. She said social studies is one of her favorite subjects and complimented her fellow students _ both those on the stage and the fifth-grade students in the audience.

"Everyone here tried really hard," she said.

Elementary school principal and bee moderator Teresa Gorman congratulated all of the students who participated and the fifth-graders in the audience who didn’t quite make it this year.

"I want to commend you all on a marvelous job," she said. "These are never easy, but its a wonderful experience."

Kiser, who acted as a judge during the bee, said the fifth-grade bee plants a geography seed in their minds. Where they once were not maybe paying as much attention to geography, now they will, she said. It also helps prepare them for the middle school bee next year.

The second round of the bee took place Tuesday and consisted of a written exam taken by Zheng, Miller and geography bee winners from around the state. The top 100 scorers in the state then advance to the state bee, held March 30 in Albany. Test results were not immediately available Wednesday.

Last year, CCS 8th-grader and bee champion Paul Kennedy advanced to the state competition before being eliminated. Gorman said Kennedy won the fifth-grade bee as well.

Winners of the 50 state competitions receive an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. in May to compete in the National Geographic Bee national championship, moderated by "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek. The national championship winner receives a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, which sponsors the bee.