SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Proud parents from across the area gave their kids one last big hug for good luck, blew a kiss for encouragement, and brought bouquets of congratulations.
“It’s just a surreal feeling! I’m very excited that she’s very into school and that she’s willing to participate, and I told her just have fun,” Keyla Fajaro, Parent of Student in the Spelling Bee
It's fun but also takes incredible focus as they lock in on the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee on Thursday morning. 78 middle schoolers were testing their mental might to see if they would be crowned the 2026 county champion.
One of the spellers was Nandan Ganesh.
“I feel like my head's going to explode. It also feels like, um, like amazing but like also scared, and then there's like a hint of like, ‘OK, you've got this. No, you don't got this,’ It's like everything is coming at once,” Ganesh said.
Over the course of 23 rounds, many words were spelled correctly with celebration, and many were met with the sound of the bell for being misspelled.
An anxious time for parents watching their kid on stage.
“Countless hours he's been preparing for this, you know, the family's been helping him. Everyone's been helping him, so we feel like we're up there with him. So, it was definitely nerve-wracking,” Cindy Reinhard, a parent of a Spelling Bee contestant, said.
But, in the end, one speller could be crowned champion. The Regional Spelling Bee winner for 2026 was Cindy's son, Benjamin Reinhard, an eighth grader from Maranatha Christian School.
“Amazing. I really didn't expect to get this far, honestly,” Benjamin Reinhard said. “I just try to be modest, and I also feel like everyone else was really well prepared as well. Like, there was a lot of great competition out there today.”
He won after spelling the word “kenosis.”
“I was thinking just, if I spell it the simplest way possible, I think that would be the best way to go about it,” Benjamin Reinhard said.
It was a proud moment for even prouder parents as their son hoisted the trophy.
“He worked so hard, we're so proud of him,” Andy Reinhard, Benjamin’s father, said. “It felt surreal when he won at the school, and now it felt even more surreal to be at the regional level.”
Benjamin will now compete in the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C., during the last week in May.
