Wildwood, NJ teacher competes on Jeopardy

He didn’t win, but he performed pretty well; Matthew McElroy, a teacher at Cape May Technical High School, competed on Jeopardy! this week, coming in second to the reigning champ, Jay Foster.

McElroy got off to a good start, and after the first Jeopardy round, he was in the lead with $4,600, leading Foster by $200; the third player a student from Texas, Riley Timmreck, had $1,800.

He was trailing in the second round when he found a Daily Double in the category “Surnames.” The clue was, “The name Chevrolet goes back to a word for this animal, or perhaps one who kept them.” McElroy answered “gazelle,” which was wrong; the correct response was “goat.”

Going into the Final Jeopardy round, McElroy was in second place with $10,400, trailing Foster, who had $16,400; Timmreck had $200.

The Final Jeopardy clue was under the category “Women who Write” and was “Mimicking her style, a 1912 rejection note read: 'Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one.'"

The correct answer: Gertrude Stein. All three contestants got it wrong. McElroy bet $9,999 on the final, finishing with $401. Foster won his second consecutive game with $11,999, and Timmrick finished third with $0.

Foster is now a two-day champion, having won $25,999 over the course of his championship run.

For finishing in second place, McElroy won $2,000.

According to the Press of Atlantic City, McElroy told host Mayim Bialik that he grew up as an avid reader and now carries on the tradition of reading every night with his son.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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