On the first day of the 2026 Best Sapper competition, 1st Lts. Bryce Sullenger and Christopher Barrett rushed to a swimming station, read over the task and challenge, and hit the water. They swam, got out and were told they had to swim an additional 50 meters each. They had missed part of the challenge and made a crucial mistake. That threw them off, especially because it was so early in the competition, when a lot of points were at stake.
“We just had to brush it off our shoulders and move on to the next event and not get carried away,” Sullenger said.
Despite that and a few other mistakes, the pair was declared the Best Sapper team this morning at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. It’s the second year in a row that a team from the 75th Ranger Regiment took home the top spot in the Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers Sapper Competition.
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The pair was one of 42 teams from across the military that gathered at the U.S. Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood for the competition. The nearly week-long competition put dozens of soldiers through a series of physically and mentally challenging tasks. Alongside the fitness events, including obstacle courses and nighttime land navigation courses, there were more engineering-focused tasks, including cutting through doors in an urban assault course, setting up fighting positions and rappelling off cliffs. The events were meant to test combat engineers’ knowledge and skills, and how they applied them in the field.
For Barrett and Sullenger, they admitted it was grueling and that they made mistakes along the way. But they said they had to not let one bad event or one mistake throw them off. Both soldiers credited the training they did together at Fort Benning for helping them find the fortitude they needed for the events. The two — Sullenger an infantryman, Barrett, an engineering officer — trained with soldiers preparing for the Best Ranger competition, going through endurance trials with them before the spring events.
“I had some experience in the engineering realm, Bryce had a lot of experience in the infantry world,” Barrett said, which along with their preparation, helped them be ready for the competition’s challenges. The week still had surprises, from the annual mystery event slot to equipment they didn’t have on hand at the start of the competition.
As with previous years, the event brought in dozens of soldiers from across the Army, including teams drawn from major units like the 101st Airborne Division and 25th Infantry Division, as well as the Reserves and even cadets from West Point. Throughout the contest, the two Rangers stayed near the top of the leaderboard, but were in a tight race with other teams. The pair also credited their competitors for keeping them motivated; “One of our favorite quotes is ‘iron sharpens iron,’” Sullenger added.
The annual Best Sapper competition is one of several skill and job-based competitions the Army holds each spring, from testing who is Best Scout Squad or Best Sniper. Along with Best Ranger and Best Sniper, the Best Sapper competition is one of the largest draws inside the service.
Last year, a team from the 75th Ranger Regiment won Best Sapper. It was one of several events Rangers clinched last year, including Best Ranger and the 2025 Lacerda Cup Combatives Competition, a martial arts contest the Army holds. Sullenger himself competed in the 2025’s Best Ranger event, and said they are hard to compare given their different focuses, but they both had similar levels of physical difficulty. Going into this year’s competition after last year’s wins, Barrett admitted “a lot was expected of us.”
