Sixteen shooters posted perfect scores in Sunday’s final round at the 2026 USA High School Clay Target League National Championship. The shoot-off that followed whittled them down to one.
Nevyn Hengel of Minnesota’s Sibley East High School took the 2026 crown at the Michigan Trapshooting Association in Mason, Michigan, and he did it the hard way. After qualifying 26th on Saturday with a 99, Hengel came back Sunday, ran a flawless 100-straight, then outlasted every other clean card in the shoot-off.
Alexis Stupi of Aquinas High School in Wisconsin earned top female honors, and her Saturday looked even less like a championship preview. Stupi qualified 128th. A day later she posted a 99 in the final and beat Nina Slingsby of Minnesota's Richfield High School/Academy of Holy Angels in the tiebreaker.
One clay decided the team title. Fall River High School of Wisconsin shot 485 out of 500 for the Team National Championship, a single target ahead of a four-way logjam at 484: Fort LeBoeuf High School of Pennsylvania, Beaver River Central High School of New York, North Ridgeville High School of Ohio and Dodgeville High School of Wisconsin. Fort LeBoeuf nearly stole the weekend anyway. The Pennsylvania school placed Mathew Huffman second and Kenneth Byerly fifth among the men and Evelyn Kubiak sixth among the women.
Casyn Johnson of Cedar Vale-Dexter High School in Kansas finished third on the men’s side, with Gavin Schutte of Wisconsin’s Ashland-Washburn High School fourth. Among the women, Brighton High School’s Nora Madsen of Colorado took third ahead of North Ridgeville’s Dakota Hessoun and Grace Hahn of Dieterich High School in Illinois.
Nearly 3,000 athletes from 469 high schools shot the July 8-12 event. Getting there took a full spring season, when more than 40,000 student-athletes competed on over 2,000 high school teams nationwide, and only the highest final season averages earned a registration slot.
Learn more about the USA Clay Target League at highschool.usaclaytarget.com.
