“I think this is the best day of my life,” said Rayansh Mishra, winner of the 2026 Wasatch Front Regional Spelling Bee. The fifth grader from Woodstock Elementary in Murray beat out 98 other students to earn the title. He will travel to Washington, D.C., in May to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. 

After finishing in the top 12 in last year’s event, Rayansh said the Scripps Word Club app helped him prepare for this year’s bee.

“It has tests to see how good you actually are with the words,” he said. “You don’t have to think, ‘Am I good at these words?’ You know.”

Nearly 70 schools participated in this year’s Wasatch Front Regional Spelling Bee (formerly the Greater Northern Utah Spelling Bee), featuring students through eighth grade. All students took a written test before moving on to the stage rounds, which narrowed the finalists to 23 spellers. 

After nearly 24 rounds, Rayansh spelled the winning word, “Beauceron,” which earned him the title and a trip to the nation’s capital. The City Journals will cover his expenses and the parent who will travel with him. 

The second-place winner was Advik Dehran from American Preparatory Academy in Draper, with Ayansh Sahu from Beehive STEM Academy taking third place. 

This event has been sponsored by the City Journals for the last 13 years. Owner and publisher Bryan Scott said the spelling bee’s necessity is rooted in core literacy.

“You have the governor and all of the politicians talking about social media and the impact on literacy and our school systems,” he said. “Whether it's spelling or whether it’s reading the Journal, you need spelling for everything. Success with AI comes down to your ability to prompt, and spelling is part of that, so I don’t see us leaving spelling behind anytime soon.”

Rayarsh is the son of Rohita and Santi Mishra. He said he’s a bit intimidated by the idea of competing at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, especially since he’ll have to study many more words. 

“The vocabulary questions are scary,” Rayansh said. “You just have to study a lot, to the point where you think you know it.”

Last year’s winner of the Wasatch Front Regional Spelling Bee was 13-year-old Roshan Kaushik, who ended up making it to the semi-finals, where he finished in 36th place. 

“Sending someone to D.C. is fun, but the gratification for me is getting to see these kids have fun here, to get up on this stage and have their parents proud of them,” Scott said. “We don’t spend a lot of time celebrating academics. If you take a look at the few things that we still do, like the Sterling Scholars and the valedictorians, that’s pretty far and few in between. It’s important to me that we celebrate these kids here on stage and give them a chance to shine.”

To follow Rayansh’s national spelling bee journey, visit SpellingBee.com.