Aanya Mehta successfully defended her Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee championship Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District

Bridgewater‑Raritan Middle School celebrated an impressive display of academic talent on Thursday, January 22, as eighth grader Aanya Mehta successfully defended her title and was crowned the 2025–2026 Spelling Bee Champion.

Aanya was one of 22 finalists who took the stage in the school auditorium for the annual competition. Under the guidance of Spelling Bee Coordinator and Pronouncer Lindsay Rath, a Latin teacher at the Middle School, students advanced through 12 challenging rounds. Ms. Rath was supported by six staff members who served as judges: Kelley Beahan, Alyssa Carothers, Melissa Kardos, Lori Macsata, Julia Meisterich, and Nicole Zivkovic.

By the start of Round 12, only two competitors remained: Aanya and fellow student Sahishn Bangaru. After Sahishn misspelled his word, Aanya seized the moment and secured her victory by correctly spelling “paranephric,” an adjective meaning “adjacent to the kidney.” She shared that she had never encountered the word before but used its similarity to “parallel” to guide her spelling.

This marks Aanya’s second consecutive championship. As a seventh grader last year, she won the Bee by spelling “egotistical.” This year’s event also featured the largest finalist group since Ms. Rath began coordinating the competition.

“This is my fourth year running the Spelling Bee, and this year marks the most students we have ever had make it to the finals,” Ms. Rath said. “We went through 12 rounds of spelling to get down to our one winner, Aanya Mehta!”

Aanya will now advance to represent Bridgewater‑Raritan Middle School at the Regional Spelling Bee on March 8 at the South Orange Performing Arts Center.

Finalists in the 2025–2026 Bridgewater‑Raritan Middle School Spelling Bee

Aanya Mehta
Aashi Raina
Aashutosh Vyas
Adithi Srinivasan
Aditya Barauh
Anirvinya Polisetty
Vani Chakradeo
Daksha Samadurai
Dheshna Ishi Kambala
Gautam Vadhri
Isaac Guo
Kirett Attanit
Nathan Penumudi
Owen Jones
Parnashri Yalala
Radissa Wlbawa
Roshan PraveenKumar
Sahishn Bangaru
Samantha Sanchez
Tanusri Kondle
Vicky Sun
Zimeng Kang

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