Danvers Native McLean in Contest for 3rd Appearance on Jeopardy!

Danvers native Erin McLean is practically a regular now on Jeopardy!

The 2009 Danvers High grad and salutatorian first appeared on the game show in 2010 as a Boston University sophomore in the College Championship series. McLean actually took the initial online quiz to appear on the show while still in high school.

Ultimately, she walked away from that experience with a grand prize of $100,000. Next she returned in 2012 for the Tournament of Champions, finishing as a semi-finalist. Now she's competing for a spot in the Battle of the Decades Tournament.

For McLean, competing on Jeopardy! is a lifelong dream...that apparently keeps repeating itself.

She says she loved everything about her time on Jeopardy! -- "the competition, the people and the knowledge.” She was also the first BU student to ever win the College Championship.

“Winning the College Championship was great, but I wanted more. Being on the Tournament of Champions quenched that thirst, but only for a little while,” said McLean in an announcement.

With degree in hand from BU -- she studied English and marine science -- and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences, the 21-year-old McLean hopes to return to the show for a shot at $1 million while celebrating Alex Trebek's 30th anniversary as host.

The show's producers have already chosen the other 14 contestants for this tournament -- winners from the past three decades -- but the last spot is a wildcard left up to the fans. Five winners from the 2000s, including McLean, were selected and whoever comes up with the most online votes gets to play for the Battle of the Decades.

“I want the opportunity to compete in this Decades Tournament because I have something to prove,” said McLean. “The college champs may get an automatic bid into the Tournament of Champions, but fans and contestants normally count them out. They’re too young. They haven’t learned enough. They don’t have as much life experience. Their questions were too easy. I’m here to defy all those objections.”

Voting opened Monday at 10 a.m. and concludes at 9:59 a.m. Oct. 21. You can cast your support for McLean online at the Jeopardy! website, via the show's Facebook page and by tweeting "Erin #JeopardyVote."

You can vote each of the three ways once per day, and you can spread the word via Twitter repeatedly throughout the day, but only the first tweet from your account for that day will count as a vote.