Kendra Westerhaus’ run on ‘Jeopardy!’ has ended. Here’s how the State College native did
Kendra Westerhaus’ time on “Jeopardy!” ended Wednesday, an experience the State College native called “amazing.”
The licensed psychologist who now lives in Pocatello, Idaho, won her first game by $3,601 and her second game in a runaway before falling short in her third contest.
What was different about Wednesday’s game? Westerhaus said in an email that she “was a bit sluggish going into the last game, and felt like I couldn’t get the buzzer timing right.” Her buzzer issues got better as the game went on, she said.
She also praised the other contestants, particularly data scientist Stephen Webb, who won the game.
“I was also up against stiff competition — Stephen is a well-rounded, fierce player!”
Westerhaus said many people from different phases of her life have reached out during her time on the show, including some who knew her when she lived in State College.
“I’ve been especially tickled to see facebook posts from former SCASD teachers!” the 2000 State High graduate said.
What do the stats say?
“Jeopardy!” releases daily box scores about each game, which detail how successful each contestant was at buzzing in and how many questions each answered correctly, among other data points.
The stats bear out Westerhaus’ buzzer issues in her last game. She was able to buzz in just 11 times, the fewest total of her three appearances. In comparison, Webb, the eventual winner, buzzed in a total of 23 times.
The box score shows she attempted to buzz in 31 times (another three-day low) for a 35% success rate. Webb’s success rate was 58%, while fellow contestant Jason Carpenter had the highest rate at 63%.
Though Westerhaus answered less than half as many questions as her competitors Wednesday (some $2,000 clues late in the game gave her a boost), she had the highest rate of correct responses; she answered 10 of 11 questions correctly, for a 91% rate, while the other two contestants each gave correct responses 88% of the time.
She had three perfect rounds: the Jeopardy round on her first episode (Feb. 13), when she went 8-for-8 on correct answers; the Jeopardy round on her second episode (Feb. 14), when she gave 11 correct responses and zero incorrect responses; and the Double Jeopardy round on her final episode (Feb. 15), when she answered five out of five questions correctly.
Over her three games, she buzzed in successfully 50% of the time, correctly answered 50 of 55 questions (for a 91% success rate), got four of five Daily Doubles correct and correctly answered Final Jeopardy every time.
Westerhaus said she was proud to get Final Jeopardy correct in all three of her games.
