By Kathryn Reed

ZEPHYR COVE — If you need to know where in the world something is, Hilton Atherton and Goody Walowit are the ones to ask.

Atherton, a Zephyr Cove Elementary School sixth-grader, is headed for the Nevada state Geography Bee in Las Vegas next month. Walowit, a seventh-grader at South Tahoe Middle School, is headed to Sacramento for the California bee.

“The best way to study states is with a blank map and fill it out,” Atherton said. “The most important thing is you get an atlas.”

Hilton Atherton

Atlases are used for learning where rivers, mountain ranges and islands are. Some geography books have questions in them that he uses to test himself. He spends 15 to 30 minutes a day preparing for the state competition.

“I’ve been giving him resources to study,” Principal Nancy Cauley said. “He is a very bright boy.”

Atherton said he’s not nervous. He said he thinks it will be fun. Plus, this will be the first time he’s been to Las Vegas.

“It’s fun to know where places are; where famous landmarks are,” Atherton said.

He reached the state level by winning the school competition. Atherton had to know things like how many countries the Himalayas cross. Then in February he had to take a written test. His success on that was his ticket into the Vegas competition.

Walowit also had to take a written test after winning his school competition. This is his second time to make it to the state level, where he will compete against 99 other students in grades four through eighth.

“His family is helping him prepare. He has some books and materials,” teacher Kathy Brown said.

Members of the school PTA helped prep the STMS students through games and other enrichment programs before the local geography bee.

Whoever wins each state competition in the first week of April will qualify for May’s national Geography Bee in Washington.