New Hampshire woman wins on ‘Jeopardy!’

A New Hampshire woman unseated a “Jeopardy!” champion who came in with a four-day streak Monday night. 

Maureen O’Neil, an executive assistant from Rye Beach, New Hampshire, won the game March 7 with $2,200. O’Neil was competing against Margaret Shelton from Pennsylvania and Clay Cooper from Nevada. Shelton had a four-day win streak going into the game — if she had won she would have locked in a spot in the next Tournament of Champions. 

O’Neil took the lead early, ending the “Jeopardy!” round with $6,600, more than $3,000 ahead of Shelton, her nearest competitor. Shelton started the round in the “French cooking terms” category, and O’Neil answered two correctly. Over the other five categories, O’Neil answered 10 prompts correctly. 

O’Neil’s performance in the first round put Shelton in the unfamiliar position of entering “Double Jeopardy!” in second place. During the second round, the four-time champion took back the lead from O’Neil, ending with $12,300 to O’Neil’s $10,200. Cooper, an ACT and SAT tutor, did not qualify for the final round after finishing “Double Jeopardy!” with -$2,400. 

The “Final Jeopardy!” round brought a question that stumped both contestants. Host Ken Jennings posed the clue, “A small river connects these 2 lakes that combined form close to 10% of their country’s area” to O’Neil and Shelton. 

In the 30 seconds they had to answer, O’Neil wrote down “What are Guata and Mala?” and wagered $8,000 of her $10,200. Shelton ran out of time and only wrote “What are Nicaragua and.” She went big with her wager, betting the entire $12,300 she had. 

Both contestants were incorrect, though Shelton was close. The correct answer was Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua.

Because Shelton had bet it all, this left the New Hampshire contestant as Monday’s winner. She will be back on the show Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

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