Exeter resident and Phillips Exeter Academy teacher on 'Jeopardy!': Here's how it went.

EXETER — Kelly Flynn had nothing to lose in third place with negative $600 when she bet $2,000 for her “Daily Double” on Wednesday’s episode of “Jeopardy!”

Flynn, a Phillips Exeter Academy teacher, paused as she searched for the answer to the prompt – “an eight-letter word made up of a prefix from Greek meaning ‘sharp,’ and another word that means someone of low intelligence.”

She shook her head, smiling but silent.

“Kelly?” asked host Ken Jennings.

“Yeah,” she replied, admitting defeat. The word was “oxymoron.”

Mattea Roach won her 22nd straight day

Flynn came in third place, leaving the show before the top two contestants competed in “Final Jeopardy!” She went up against Mattea Roach, a Toronto native and tutor, who won first place with $28,400 to clinch her 22nd straight day winning on the show. She also faced Jamie Sisson, a banking manager from Mississippi.

Roach clinched her win during “Final Jeopardy!” in which she correctly answered which battle was the topic of a Civil War song that claimed General McLellan was “too slow to beat ‘em.” The answer was Antietam, and her 22-day total cash winnings grew to $534,984.

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Here's how Kelly Flynn did on 'Jeopardy!'

Flynn held second place for a portion of the game. Roach opened with a string of correct answers to tally $2,800. Flynn then answered correctly which prefix-sharing words meant a scientific study focused on the population and a government by the people – demographics and democracy – bringing her up to $400.

She then landed on her first “Daily Double,” answering correctly two words that share a prefix and mean to counteract poison and a “rival religious figure like Felix the V in the 15th century.” She said "antivenom and antipope,” which Jennings said was correct but added, “or antidote.” The question earned her $1,000, putting her in second place at the first commercial break. Flynn then rose to have $3,200, getting right the state capital originally founded as Fort Nassau – Albany.

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Still, Matteo maintained a consistent lead. Flynn incorrectly guessed Hubert Humphrey as the politician who was elected governor in 1942, 1946 and 1950 but lost two presidential elections. Roach jumped in to get the correct answer, Thomas Dewey. That put Roach at $6,200, ahead of Flynn’s now $3,000.

Flynn then fell to negative numbers, starting with her stab at the currency shared by Cyprus and Estonia. She answered the ruble, the correct answer being the euro, losing her $800 and putting her in third place. She missed another answer on which national park touted 1 million gnu and was an attraction that “shall not die,” that being the Serengeti.

She made another climb back up to $1,800, answering correctly that Pedro Almodóvar directed “All About My Mother” and “Parallel Mothers.” She dropped back to $600 on a question asking which author wrote of a fictitious world known as “Llareggub,” backwards for “bugger all.” She guessed Jonathan Swift, but the answer was Dylan Thomas.

Roach correctly answered Swift a question later when the fictitious world in question was Brobdingnag. Another question later, Flynn guessed that “Moore” was the author behind the fictitious country Erewhon, when in fact it was Samuel Butler. That answer brought her down to negative $1,400. She gained back $600 with one more correct answer before facing her final “Double Jeopardy!”

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Kudos from host Ken Jennings

Jennings commended her with her decision to lay down $2,000, her maximum bet, to jump back into the competition.

“You did the right thing by wagering $2,000 on the Daily Double,” Jennings said. “But unfortunately, we’re going to have to say goodbye to you here.”

Flynn could not be reached for comment following the episode.

During the show, she was asked by Jennings about her experience traveling to Argentina where she learned to tango.

“I tangoed inside, outside, around the clock,” she said of her deep dive into the dance that originated in that region of South America. “I got invited to tango in a cemetery, but I drew the line there.”

Other Seacoast contestants

Flynn is the third Seacoast contestant on “Jeopardy!” this year. Maureen O’Neil of Rye Beach won $58,200 on a four-game winning streak in March. Another Granite-Stater, Amy Bekkerman, an academic copy editor, also appeared on the show in March.

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Jennings has said every year is highly selective as far as contestants who make it on the show. Contestants are required to pass a qualifying test online composed of 50 categories and 50 clues like those seen on the show. After the test comes an audition, followed by a phone call inviting them onto the show.

“I think by the numbers it’s ten times harder to get on 'Jeopardy!' than to get into Yale,” Jennings told Esquire in September.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'Jeopardy!': Kelly Flynn of Exeter NH on quiz show with Mattea Roach