PRINT ADS

She knew her Brewers, Bucks and Packers. She even surprised herself by knowing Flavor Flav. But a bit of history that involved President John Tyler and Texas stumped Suchita Shah, and the UW-Madison senior saw her run on “Jeopardy!” end in a semifinal that aired May 14. By making it that far, she won $10,000 at the college tournament that was filmed at the Kohl Center last month.

“I was wavering between California and Texas at the end and then put down California,” said Shah, who was leading going into the Final Jeopardy round. “I’ve had a lot of people go up to me and say, ‘I knew that. Why didn’t you put down Texas?’ And I think, ‘Great, let’s see you up there.’”

It was a dream come true for the neurobiology major from Holmen.

She’d been a fan of the game since middle school and even tried out for last year’s college championship that was filmed at the University of Southern California.

She tried again this year with an online test before she even knew the show was going to be in Madison.

That only added to the excitement, and it did give her a slight advantage in one category: “Brewers, Bucks and Packers.” In the first round, it was about real brewers, bucks or packers, but the second round was about the sports teams and Shah nearly ran the category.

“I didn’t get Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I’m not that big of a Bucks fan, apparently,” she said. “But I got Brett Favre, Vince Lombardi, Hank Aaron and Prince Fielder. I’m glad I got those, otherwise I’d have been booed out of the Kohl Center.”

She can credit her roommates with her success with another question.

Shah knew her weak spot was popular culture, so her roommates worked with her on that before the competition.

“They made me sit down and watch all the crazy reality TV shows with them,” she said. “There was one question in the second round about Flavor Flav and my roommates definitely helped me out because I had watched “Flavor of Love” with them. If I hadn’t watched that, I would never have gotten that question right.”

The whole experience has turned Shah into a bit of a campus celebrity, with people asking for her autograph or wanting their picture taken with her. That’s odd, she said, but there are a few perks.

“This really cool thing was I ran into Travis Beckum from the football team on State Street the other night and he said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s you!’ and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s you!’ That was a really cool experience.”

Shah graduated on Sunday, and she will head to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in the fall.

Chances are she’ll never confuse California and Texas again, but Shah has no regrets about the experience.

“It was fun. It was stressful, it was nerve-wracking but exciting at the same time,” she said. “Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I got on the show and that was a dream come true. And you can’t say no to 10 grand.”