Joshua Cohen, a seventh-grader from Blach Intermediate School, placed second in the state geography bee held in Sacramento. More than 500,000 students from 2,000 schools compete in the competition, and the top 100 travel to the state competition in Sacramento every year.

The students begin the competition at the classroom level, with the class winners advancing to the school final. The top student from each of the 2,000 schools then takes a written exam, with the top 100 scores advancing to the state competition, which was held March 31.

In addition to Cohen’s award, three other Los Altos students placed in the top 100: Peter Johnston, Sushmita Sridhar and Zachary Strom. Johnston placed first in last year’s competition.