Southeast Education Service Center

Mont Harmon 7th Grader wins 2025 SESC Regional Spelling Bee

After twenty-one rounds of intense spelling challenges, 7th grader Ashley Bryner, Mont Harmon Middle School, emerged as the first-place winner in this year’s SESC Regional Spelling Bee.

Second place went to 7th grader Amelia Gardner, from Helper Middle School, who battled Miss Heaton for ten rounds until misspelling the word isms. Ashley Bryner’s winning word was extinguished. Third place was captured by 6th grader Oliver Jeppesen from Albert R. Lyman Middle School. The spelling bee was held at Moab’s Grand County High School on March 6, 2025.

As the champion, Bryner received a trophy, an all-expense paid trip for two to the 2025 Scripps  National Spelling Bee Week, along with The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, 1 year of Britannica Online Premium, and one year of Merriam-Webster unabridged online subscriptions.

Second and third-place spellers received a trophy and all other participants received a recognition plaque for making it to the regional bee. The national spelling bee will be held in

National Harbor, Maryland, beginning May 25, 2025.

The top three spellers from Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan District, plus Pinnacle Academy, grades 4 through 8, advanced to the SESC Regional Bee from their local school and district bees held earlier this year. The spelling was overseen by pronouncer Jessie Magleby, Grand County Public Library, and SESC judges Johnna Boyack and JoLynn Torgerson. Awards were presented by Southeast Education Service Center Director John Hughes.

Carbon District bee winners were Ashley Bryner - Mont Harmon Middle 7th grade, Asher Thayn -Mont Harmon Middle 8th, and Amelia Gardner- Mont Harmon Middle 7th grade.

Emery District bee winners were Bryan Ramirez - Book Cliff Elementary 6th, Hannah Prince-Canyon View Middle 7th

Winners from the Grand area bees were Nolan Knutsen - Margaret L. Hopkin Middle 7th, Levi Jackman - Helen M. Knight Elementary 4th and Piper Lowe - Moab Charter - 5th.

San Juan District bee spellers were Ollie Jeppesen - Alfred R. Lyman Middle 6th, Kaira Francisco - Whitehorse 8th and - Nixon Boone - Monticello Elementary 4th.

Representing Pinnacle Canyon Academy was Colton Day-6th.

The Scripps Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 291 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

The Bee’s purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. It is broadcast on Bounce TV and Ion Television.