Goshen Eighth-Grader Wins Orange County Spelling Bee, Advances to Nationals

Luke Hand, an eighth-grader at C.J. Hooker Middle School in Goshen, won the 2026 Orange County Regional Spelling Bee by spelling 44 out of 50 words correctly on a written tiebreaker, earning the county's berth at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 26-28.

The championship took two separate days to settle. The oral competition at the Axelrod Education Center on the Orange-Ulster BOCES Amy Bull Crist Campus ran 17 rounds on March 10 before stalling. Hand and Rex Heymer, an eighth-grader from Warwick Valley Middle School, reached an exact draw. Because it was a school night and the oral rounds had ended without separating the two, officials followed Scripps National Spelling Bee tiebreaking procedures and announced a proctored written test would determine the champion. Both competitors left Goshen without a title.

On March 20, Hand took the 50-word written test and spelled 44 correctly. Heymer was awarded second place. Nicole Santiago, a seventh-grader from Heritage Middle School in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, placed third.

It was not Hand's first time at the county level. As a seventh-grader last year, he represented C.J. Hooker at the county bee, completed five rounds, and reached the final six before being eliminated, spelling words including "fission" and "anatomical." He returned this spring as an eighth-grader and won outright.

More than 10 million students enter the Scripps program every fall through classroom bees. One earns Orange County's slot at the national finals.

Hand, Heymer, and Santiago will receive custom engraved plaques from the Orange County School Boards Association, with additional awards sponsored by the Community Foundation of Orange, Sullivan, and Rockland. The bee is co-sponsored by Orange-Ulster BOCES, the Orange County School Boards Association, and the Community Foundation.

HOW TO FOLLOW LUKE AT NATIONALS The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals run May 26-28 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The broadcast and streaming schedule will be posted at spellingbee.com starting May 1, 2026.