Arts & Entertainment

Bridgewater's Terry O'Shea Wins $100K on Jeopardy! College Championship

The 2012 Bridgewater-Raritan High School graduate is now a sophomore at Princeton University .

After a slow start in the final installment of the Jeopardy! College Championship that aired Friday night, Princeton University sophomore Terry O'Shea got her game on and came from behind to snatch the $100,000 top prize from her two competitors. 

O'Shea proved her incredible facility with facts by starting the game by naming singer-songwriter Robin Thicke, correctly naming the Ganges, and identifying the Arabic language. But she got some wrong when she didn't put lyrics to Eminem, didn't recognize Monticello on the 2012 nickel, and guessed The Hermitage Museum was in Moscow. (It's in St. Petersburg). 

Many more challenging questions followed. In the end the UC Berkeley competitor gambled all his stash and lost, and the Texas A&M competitor fumbled on the Final Jeopardy question. But she continued on steadily winning. The final question was: 

"1713's Treaty of Utrecht concluding the War of the Spanish Succession granted this small 2.3 square-mile area to Great Britain"

The answer: 

"What is Gibraltar."

The Daily Princetonian interviewed O'Shea about her $100,00 win and learned she has plans to buy a Roomba vacuum cleaner, gift some money to perhaps Doctors Without Border, and open an IRA.  She told the university paper that it's been hard to hid her grin until now that the show has aired. "It’s the first real secret that I’ve actually had to keep, it’s been a challenge," she said. 


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