FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (April 24, 2026) – The 2026 winners of the 19th Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers Best Sapper Competition are 1st Lts. Christopher Barrett and Bryce Sullenger, representing the 75th Ranger Regiment.
The winning duo was named during an award ceremony April 24 in Lincoln Hall Auditorium.
Both Barrett and Sullenger said that it was their shared competitiveness and desire to push each other during training that gave them the edge and helped them drive home the win.
“The one thing that made us able to achieve this was being able to train together at Fort Benning, (Georgia)” Sullenger said. “One of our favorite quotes is ‘iron sharpens iron,’ not only was Chris and I constantly testing each other every day, we were also competing against the Best Ranger competitors with the Ranger Regiment. Every day, we were challenging ourselves and pushing ourselves to the limit and that’s what we had over the other competitors,” Sullenger said.
Barrett agreed.
“During the competition we were able to gel so well because of the hardships we went through training, us competing against each other and training with other Rangers,” Barrett said. “Getting through points we’re about to break and knowing we have more – allowed us to push through all the days of the competition.”
Placing second was 1st Lt. Aron Taylor and Staff Sgt. Nicholas Schill, 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division.
Third place went to 1st Lts. Lucas King and Duncan Day, 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Division Sustainment Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
The competition, which took place April 18-23, 2026, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, featured 42, two-man teams that competed in several events, included special steel cutting, mountaineering, breaching, marksmanship, land navigation, reconnaissance, utilizing handheld mine detectors and robotics. In 2005, the Army Engineer Regiment launched the inaugural Best Sapper Competition to showcase the regiment’s elite Sapper leaders.
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About Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 80 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains nearly 80,000 military and civilians each year.
Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.
Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.