Texas teen wins National Geographic Bee

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas eighth-grader won the National Geographic Bee on Thursday, the third time in four years a contender from that state has won the national contest of geographic knowledge.

Rahul Nagvekar, 14, of Sugar Land, Texas, won by correctly identifying Regensburg as the Bavarian city on the Danube River that was a legislative seat of the Holy Roman Empire from 1663 to 1806, National Geographic said in a statement.

Rahul will get a $25,000 college scholarship for his win. The 2009 and 2011 winners also were from Texas.

Vansh Jain, 13, of Minocqua, Wisconsin, finished second and will take home a $15,000 scholarship. The third-place winner, Varun Mahadevan, 13, of Fremont, California, won a $10,000 scholarship.

The competition this year began with millions of students in schools across the country. The top 10 finalists competed in the final round, which was moderated by "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek.

The three-person team that will represent the United States at the National Geographic World Championship in 2013, to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be selected from this year's and next year's top 10 Bee finalists.

Another test of students' knowledge, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, will be held May 30-31 in Washington.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Anthony Boadle)