WYATT    - Ranked # 855 with    0.006   %
XAVIER   - Ranked # 587 with    0.013   %
YONG     - Ranked # 921 with    0.006   %
YOUNG    - Ranked # 807 with    0.007   %

WYATT
XAVIER
YONG
YOUNG

(.*)?[ ]

WYATT    - Ranked

^w+

(firstWord, rest) = yourLine.split(maxsplit=1)

In [1]: text = '''WYATT    - Ranked # 855 with    0.006   %
   ...: XAVIER   - Ranked # 587 with    0.013   %
   ...: YONG     - Ranked # 921 with    0.006   %
   ...: YOUNG    - Ranked # 807 with    0.007   %'''

In [2]: print 'n'.join(line.split()[0] for line in text.split('n'))
WYATT
XAVIER
YONG
YOUNG

print line.split()[0]