MONROE - This Monroe graduate, known for her work ethic and trombone skills, will appear as a contestant on Wednesday's episode of "Jeopardy."

Who is Jenny Thorngate?

That's right.

"It was really surreal," Thorngate said. "It was just like, you know, nothing I'd experienced before."

Thorngate, 31, graduated from Monroe High School in 2002 and went on to the University of Chicago.

After finishing school, she found a job in the water microbiology department at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, which is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She's still there, but now works in the inorganic chemistry department.

"Jeopardy" hung as an elusive goal through it all.

"I just thought it'd be cool," she said. "I always watched "Jeopardy' growing up. I'd get home and watch it after school, so it was always in the back of my mind."

She took the online test that "Jeopardy" periodically offers, which gives 15 seconds to answer each of the 50 questions.

She'd like to encourage others to try their hand at the test, as well: "I feel like a lot of people don't, because they don't think they'd get on, but that's really too bad. I mean, you don't know until you try."

And try again.

Adults are limited to one attempt per year, and applicants who pass the online test are offered a chance to interview in person.

She took the test three times overall and was asked to audition twice, first in 2008 or 2009. The second time was in 2013.

Thorngate traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, in May 2013 for what turned out to be more than an interview.

First, she had to take a written test, about 50 questions long. Then, "Jeopardy" employees asked "a bunch" of questions, where "you raise your hand and you try to answer and look smart," she said. Next came another round of questions, but this time with the show's buzzers on a practice set.

If applicants do well through all of that, organizers interview them like "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek interviews contestants on the show.

When the auditions are over, it's a matter of waiting.

"They said they would call me in 18 months, but it was actually closer to 20 months," Thorngate said. "They called me back in February to ask if I could come to Culver City (California) for the actual show. But I wasn't about to be like "no, it's been longer than 18 months.'"

The episode was taped in April. Thorngate can't give away how she fared, but some of her high school teachers think she has a good chance.

"I would think that she would do very well," said Al Stauffacher, a retired MHS social studies teacher. "The only thing that could have any effect at all is - like so many other people who are on there - you've got to be quick. And if she's as quick as I remember that she was, she should do pretty well with that."

Stauffacher taught Thorngate's advanced placement United States history class, among others, and was her forensics coach. He retired in 2006.

"She worked so hard and that was impressive even at the time," he said. "She put most of her classmates at least to ... shame because of the level of work she was willing to do. So it doesn't surprise me that she's going to be on "Jeopardy' because I don't doubt that she's prepared for this."

And prepare she did. Thorngate estimates she studied for about 30 minutes to an hour every night after being notified she'd be on the show, for a total of about 20 hours.

She learned all of the state capitals - "it feels like you should know that, but I didn't" - and state nicknames, along with football and baseball teams.

This trivia can help a contestant come up with an answer even if it's not the main part of the question, Thorngate said. For example, Trebek might give a question starting with "This state, also known as the Prairie State, is ..."

"So there usually are a couple of ways of getting at the answer," she said. "It's not just whether or not you know that specific fact."

But studying didn't turn out to be as helpful as she had hoped.

"There's only so much preparing you can do because you don't know what they're actually going to ask questions about," Thorngate said. "You get out there and you just hope for categories that you know. And hope that you can beat people on the buzzer and that you're not going to be either too fast or too slow."

Buzzing in too early to answer a question locks the contestant out for half a second, "which is so much time when you're trying to get in there in front of other people," she said.

Before taping the show, she and the other contestants were able to practice with the buzzers - giving them the opportunity to try to intimidate each other.

"I was kind of trying it, but I'm not terribly intimidating. Honestly, everybody was being pretty nice to each other," Thorngate said.

More than one episode played out that day in April. She was told to bring three different outfits to the taping so that if she won, she could change her clothes and jump back in for the next episode. "Jeopardy" usually tapes five episodes in one day, according to Thorngate.

While she knows how the episode will end, she's nervous about seeing it aired on television.

"I don't remember if I said something stupid," she said. "I don't really remember much of what happened because I had so much adrenaline going on right then. ... It was totally unlike anything that has ever happened to me before. It was just so weird."

No matter how it goes, she'll no doubt have Monroe cheering her on.

Thomas Schilt, her high school band director, said he would "absolutely" be watching on Wednesday. He spent 35 years at MHS before retiring in 2009. (Stauffacher said he doesn't have a TV, otherwise he would watch.)

Schilt remembers Thorngate well, saying she was a "very, very bright young lady. Really always had it together. Mature beyond her years, even back when she was a freshman."

She played trombone in the most advanced group wind ensemble and was first chair, Schilt said. He holds her and her musical ability in high regard.

"One of the things that I remember most about her is how closely she watched," he said. "As a conductor, to always look at somebody - and she's got her music in front of her - but how she's watching for every little gesture to just give it all she had. And that's pretty special."