An eighth grader from the Plato School District will compete Friday in the 2009 Missouri Geographic Bee at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Austin McCoy, son of Terry and Sharon McCoy, was a school-level winner who took a qualifying test, which was submitted to the National Geographic Society. The top 100 scorers compete at the state level. The winner there will travel to national competition May 19-20 in Washington, D.C.