The 2025 Best Sapper Competition ended with a two-man team of Army Rangers coming in first, and in so doing, completing a near-sweep of major Army combat contests in 2025 by the elite unit, but it started with a jolt.
During a pre-contest opening ceremony on April 25, the 70 contestants rose from their seats for remarks from Col. Stephen Kolouch, the commandant of the U.S. Army Engineer School.
But the end of his remarks caught the crowd by surprise:
“Sappers,” Kolouch announced. “Ready, set, go.”
With that, the 35 startled teams realized the competition was underway and began to push aside their chairs and each other, as they raced towards the exit, where their gear was staged for a ruck race across Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri’s hilly terrain.
Ranger Capt. James Mitchiner, with TK, admitted he was surprised by the unannounced start.
“I was caught off guard, but I had a feeling something would kick off from the opening ceremony after I noticed a clock on the stage,” Mitchiner said. “My teammate and I reminded each other that it all starts now, and we are as ready as we will ever be. It’s time to execute.”
Mitchiner and his partner, 1st Lt. George Madden, both assigned to the 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia, went on to win three of the competition’s six events to take home the overall title.
The win was the fourth for 75th Ranger Regiment teams in a series of major Army-wide competitions held this spring. The sapper victory matched victories for Ranger teams in the annual Best Ranger competition at Fort Benning in early April, the Special Operations International Best Sniper Competition in March at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in the 2025 Lacerda Cup Combatives Competition, an Army-wide mixed martial arts contest held in April.
A Ranger team took second at the Army’s separate International Best Sniper Competition in early April, finishing just behind a team from 3rd Special Forces Group.
All five competitions bring together dozens of teams from units across the Army’s major infantry and special operations units, including Special Forces Groups, major units like the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, and Guard and Reserve teams. The Fort Bragg sniper competition also brings together teams from the Marines, Coast Guard, and several international commando units.
The contests are among several skills-based competitions held each spring by the Army, like best medic, best mortar and best scout squad, but the Ranger, sapper and sniper contests are the biggest in the service and draw a wider range of competitors from other services and internationally.
Though teams from the 75th Ranger Regiment generally score well at the events, four wins is a first among the major contests.
Full spectrum of skills
In the three-day sapper contest, competitors spent more than 70 hours facing written tests, obstacle courses, land navigation, underwater tasks, weapons qualifications and several combat engineer-specific challenges, including breaching.
“My favorite event was the urban breach lane during Sapper Stakes. It was an opportunity to display the chemistry and synchronization between my teammate and I to complete a task under pressure,” Mitchiner said in an Army release.
The Best Ranger competition, also a three-day event, put 52 teams through a wringer of day and night marksmanship, land nav, obstacle courses and medical scenarios.
The March special operations sniper contest at Fort Bragg included teams from Marine Forces Special Operations Command, Army Special Operations Command, Navy SEALs, and Green Berets from all seven active duty and Reserve Special Forces Groups. Teams also competed from the U.S. Coast Guard, and military personnel from Switzerland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Mitchiner said he started preparing for the sapper competition late last year after graduating from the Sapper Leader Course, a 24-day course that earns a soldier the right to wear a Sapper Tab.
“It means that I now have a responsibility to honor the title by continuing to hold myself to a high standard and giving my best in all I do. I am honored to be a part of a long line of Best Sapper winners and am thankful to be a part of the sapper and engineer community,” Mitchiner said.
Madden said he was “extremely grateful” for the experience.
“There was a lot of preparation and anticipation leading up to the competition that made it fulfilling to leave with a victory,” Madden said. “I believe the title comes with the responsibility to hold yourself to a high level of discipline and professionalism and I look forward to upholding the expectations associated with the title.”
Second place went to Capt. Joseph Anchondo and 1st Lt. Lucas King of the 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The pair won the Night Land Navigation event. Third place was 1st Lt. Trent Aldrich and 1st Lt. Samuel Kicklighter of the 2nd Regimental Engineer Squadron in Grafenwoehr, Germany.
The Physical Fitness Test event was won by a pair of West Point Cadets, Isaiah McNeilly and Samuel Dickerson.