PLANO, Texas — A Plano native competed in the finals Jeopardy! National College Championship on Tuesday night and won!
Plano's Jaskaran Singh attends the University of Texas at Austin and was one of the three finalists for the special event on Tuesday, after advancing from Friday's six semifinalists.
This tournament started with 36 students from 36 colleges and universities from across the country during nine days of competition.
Singh won the Feb. 11 quarterfinals with a question about Ukraine and earned $19,900.
He then advanced from the semis to the final round on Feb. 18, earning $24,000 total after betting - and winning - all of his $12,200 total at the end of the Double Jeopardy round.
On Friday's semifinals, Singh attempted to buzz in 43 times, and was successful with 20 of those attempts, according to stats from the Jeopardy! website. Singh also has given 18 correct answers and only three incorrect answers going into the finals.
Singh said his parents have been encouraging him to try out, "every year probably since I was 12 or 13 to try out, so I've been taking the online test," Singh said during an interview with Jeopardy!
"Watched a lot of Jeopardy episodes previously," Singh said. "I was clicking on the pen at home to prepare for this."
Singh wasn't the only North Texas native competing in the championship.
Dallas native Toussaint Pegues competed in the quarterfinals. Pegues started school at The Lamplighter School before moving over to St. Mark’s. He’s now a senior at Cal Tech.
Pegues went into Final Jeopardy! in second place with $5,000. However, he gave the wrong answer with his final wager of $4,999, which brought him down to $1.
Pegues lost to Emmey Harris of the University of Minnesota.