Princeton student advances in 'Jeopardy!' Tournament of Champions

Once again, geography proved a boon for Princeton's Terry O'Shea.

In February, "What is Gilbraltar?" nailed down the crown in Jeopardy!'s college tournament as well as $100,000 for the English major, who grew up in Bridgewater, N.J.

Thursday, O'Shea was back, competing in the show's Tournament of Champions, and had a slim lead going into Final Jeopardy. The category was "Tunnels," and she aced this one, too:

"These 2 islands that begin with the same letter are linked by the 33.5 mile Seikan rail tunnel, the world's longest in operation."

Sorry, but "What are Iceland and Ireland?" is nowhere close. (See correct question at the end.)

As a result, O'Shea moves on to next week's semifinals, facing the likes of Swarthmore's "mad genius," Arthur Chu, who won Tuesday, and the syndicated quiz-show's winningest woman ever, Julia Collins, whose $9,100 runner-up total Wednesday is sure to qualify her as a wild card.

Chu, renowned for riding atypical strategies to 11 straight wins early this year, praised O'Shea in his tweets about the tournament.

O'Shea was soft-spoken and unassuming over the phone earlier this week, belying the idea her modesty was a strategy.

She hadn't indulged a wish to spend some winnings on a Roomba, but said she had spent money on her fish.

She enjoys drawing cartoons for the Princetonian but admitted she's not a great artist.

She applied on a whim, felt lucky to get on the show, and said she was lucky to have been reading about Gibraltar days before it came up in Final Jeopardy.

"I have plenty of friends who know way more trivia than I do, who regularly dazzle me with their knowledge" at a campus trivia night, she told the Princetonian, the student newspaper. "It just seemed so unlikely."

"Just being at Princeton, I learn so much, not only from my classes but just through osmosis, through being surrounded by brilliant people," she said.

She even admitted taking pity on an opponent, according to Chu.

No wonder people in the studio audence as well at Princeton viewing parties were rooting for her.

Today's show (shown locally at 7 p.m. on 6ABC) will finalize the list of nine semifinalists (five winners, four wild cards) who will compete Monday through Wednesday next week.

Wait ... a hint? Jeopardy's lead photos seem to have known in advance who makes the semifinals, so Sandie Baker seems like a great bet today.

The winners of those three shows will meet in the two-day finals on Thursday and next Friday.

While Chu and Collins may be favorites, don't count O'Shea out.

Especially if Final Jeopardy ventures into geography.

The correct "Tunnels" question was "What are Hokkaido and Honshu?"

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com. Follow @petemucha on Twitter.