St. Bonaventure Team Is Geography Champ

So where, exactly, is the deepest oceanic trench?

Just leave that question to students from St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura, who dominated the competition in the ninth annual Geography Bowl, held Saturday at Oxnard College.

More than 200 Ventura County high school students competed in the heated meeting of the brains to answer questions such as: what is the fourth-most-populous nation and which Canadian provinces would be isolated if Quebec secedes.

St. Bonaventure’s Kevin Tudway, Jim McConville, Celina Sanchez, Kathleen Rudolf, Chris Nelson and James Basolo walked away with top honors for the team competition.

They beat Camarillo High after a grueling 18th-round tiebreaker that asked which lake Niagara Falls empties into. The answer: Lake Ontario.

Santa Paula High School, which placed third in the overall competition, also had the top individual winner, Steve Reeder.

For their impressive knowledge, St. Bonaventure students will get an aerial tour of Ventura County, courtesy of Oxnard’s Aspen Helicopters.

While soaring above the clouds, maybe they can yell down that at 36,198 feet, the Mariana Trench off the coast of Guam is the deepest spot in the ocean.