LANCASTER STUDENT, 14, TAKES 4TH AT STATE GEOGRAPHY BEE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The hours spent reading atlases, staring endlessly at and memorizing maps, and scanning the Internet for geography quizzes paid off handsomely for 14-year-old Justin Abraham.

Abraham, an eighth-grader at Sacred Heart School, placed fourth in the state geography bee in Sacramento, and that was only after losing a tiebreaker question for third place.

``Geography is my favorite along with history. I liked learning state capitals when I was 6 years old. When I was young, I liked reading a lot of history,'' Abraham said. ``It's an honor to get that far.''

Abraham was among the 100 finalists from around California who participated in last week's contest, which was sponsored by the National Geographic Society and open to students in the fourth through eighth grades.

Another Lancaster boy, Rob Hermansen, a sixth-grader from Nancy Cory School, finished in the top 30, school officials said.

This was the third time Abraham participated in the state contest, having finished in seventh and eighth place the two previous times. Abraham and his older brother, Chris, have taken Sacred Heart School to the state final the last five years.

``Justin is very studious and outstanding,'' said social studies teacher Kirsten Tiemann. ``He is well-disciplined, and he can be fun.''

Abraham said the state final was fun but challenging, with questions covering current events, chief exports of countries, and national parks. He breezed through the question of what does WTO mean, the World Trade Organization.

The most difficult one he aced had to do with naming the country made up of islands that is the largest English-speaking country in the Caribbean.

Abraham answered the Bahamas, ``since it's a bunch of islands,'' and the only other English-speaking group of islands is Puerto Rico, which is not a country but a commonwealth associated with the United States.

He guessed wrong on what is the largest city in the African country Gabon. Abraham said Brazzaville, which is the capital of Congo. The correct answer is Libreville.

The tiebreaker question for third place was, ``What island country off the coast of Africa has about 80,000 people?'' Abraham wrongly guessed the Comoro Islands and wrote his answer on a piece of paper. The answer was the Seychelles.

The National Geographic Society developed the bee because of the lack of geographic knowledge among young people in the United States. In a 10-country survey conducted for the society in 1988 and 1989, Americans ages 18 to 24, the youngest group surveyed, scored lower than their counterparts in the other countries tested.

The National Geographic Bee involves as many as five million students a year. One sign that interest in geography has increased is that beginning this year, an advanced placement geography course is being offered by the College Board.

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