2026 SSNCT

The 2026 Small School National Championship Tournament was the twelfth iteration of NAQT's SSNCT, held on April 24-26 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, IL.

The tournament was split into two separate divisions: the Traditional Public Schools Division, which was open to public schools with 500 or fewer students enrolled in the top three grades; and the Open Division, which was open to schools which did not meet the definition of a "Traditional Public School" and which had 350 or fewer students enrolled in their top three grades. The Traditional Public Schools Division also contained a Very Small Schools subdivision, which consisted of public schools with 200 or fewer students enrolled in their top three grades.

For the third consecutive year, a full field of 88 teams contested the Traditional Public Schools division, 31 of which were categorized as Very Small Schools. A further 66 teams contested the Open Division.

Traditional Public Schools Division

2026 NAQT SSNCT (Traditional Public)
Edited by	NAQT
Champion	Russell A
Runner-up	West Point A
Third	Marianna A
Fourth	Bayless A
High scorer	Matthew Kapinus, New Berlin
Site	Hyatt Regency O'Hare
Field	88 (31 VSS)
Stats	[1]

Russell A (Kentucky) defeated defending champion West Point A (Alabama) 455-260 in the second leg of an advantaged final. Russell finished with a 17-1 record en route to their first ever SSNCT championship, their only defeat coming in the first leg of the advantaged final.

New Berlin (Illinois) claimed their first Very Small School championship with a 14-2 record.

Open Division

2026 NAQT SSNCT (Open)
Edited by	NAQT
Champion	Park Tudor A
Runner-up	St. Mark's School of Texas A
Third	University School of Nashville A
Fourth	St. Mark's School of Texas B
High scorer	Carson Tidwell, Merrol Hyde
Site	Hyatt Regency O'Hare
Field	66
Stats	[2]

In a rematch of the 2025 SSNCT Open Division final, Park Tudor A (Indiana) capped off a historic 17-0 run with a 625-215 blowout of St. Mark's School of Texas A in the first leg of an advantaged final. This marked Park Tudor's first Open Division title and St. Mark's first ever loss in a SSNCT final.

Individual Awards

All stars were ranked by their PP20TUH (points per 20 tossups heard) in the preliminary rounds of the tournament.

Traditional Public Schools Division

All Stars

Rank	Player	Year	Team	GP	TUH	Powers	Tossups	Negs	P%	PP20TUH
1	Matthew Kapinus	11th	New Berlin	10	222	45	90	19	33.3%	133.33
2	Theodore Skinner	11th	Marianna	10	227	43	81	16	34.7%	121.15
3	Mateo Cabral	11th	Westmont	10	229	22	111	12	16.5%	120.52
4	Kasan Peters	12th	Glasgow	10	226	39	78	24	33.3%	110.18
5	Aidyn Owings	12th	Fair Grove	10	215	12	103	17	10.4%	104.65
6	Marshall Gallaher	12th	Brown County	10	206	3	100	15	2.9%	94.17
7	Rian Kacmarczyk	12th	Hastings A	10	226	34	55	12	38.2%	88.50
8	Austin Chen	12th	Geneva	10	213	30	56	24	34.9%	83.57
9	Abraham Hankens	11th	Plymouth	10	214	9	78	11	10.3%	80.37
10	Madelyn Garberich	12th	Alamosa	10	218	10	71	15	12.3%	72.02
11	Holiday Herman	11th	Pandora-Gilboa	10	227	8	78	18	9.3%	71.37
12	Sean Harbison	12th	West Point A	10	237	38	38	22	50.0%	70.89
13	Daniel Nance	10th	Weaubleau	10	213	11	65	14	14.5%	69.95
14	John Ross Green	10th	Cottondale	10	216	27	38	9	41.5%	68.52
15	Cole Sutton	11th	Macomb	10	219	11	67	22	14.1%	66.21
16	Keaton Hinkle	10th	Houston	10	224	4	70	6	5.4%	65.18

Rising Stars

Rank	Player	Year	Team	GP	TUH	Powers	Tossups	Negs	P%	PP20TUH
1	Jaxon Hittle	10th	Berwick	9	209	16	47	14	25.4%	61.24
2	Ben Hall	10th	Plainview	10	206	8	50	3	13.8%	58.74
3	Ava Pruett	10th	West Point A	10	237	13	29	5	31.0%	38.82
4	Eduardo Gomez-Nieves	10th	Indian Hill B	10	223	8	37	13	17.8%	38.12
5	Maximos Frazier	10th	Morris B	10	210	4	39	10	9.3%	38.10
6	Brian Loveless	10th	White Cloud A	10	217	0	41	4	0.0%	35.94

Open Division

All Stars

Rank	Player	Year	Team	GP	TUH	Powers	Tossups	Negs	P%	PP20TUH
1	Carson Tidwell	10th	Merrol Hyde	10	233	31	92	23	25.2%	109.01
2	Tony Lu	11th	St. Mark's School of Texas A	10	232	46	32	5	59.0%	84.91
3	Aatman Shah	10th	Keith Country Day	8	179	28	36	9	43.8%	82.12
4	Austin Moore	11th	June Buchanan	10	223	21	65	15	24.4%	79.82
5	Liem Nguyen	9th	Trinity Meadow View	10	221	29	56	23	34.1%	79.64
6	Aditya Mandke	10th	Spring Branch Institute	10	222	18	64	6	22.0%	79.28
7	Andrew Kosel	10th	Cistercian	10	229	15	70	15	17.6%	74.24
8	Michael Peters	12th	New Heights Christian	10	227	17	63	13	21.2%	72.25
9	Leo Osborne	11th	Alabama Cyber Tech	10	234	26	62	33	29.5%	72.22
10	Ivan Harder	12th	Charlemont Academy	10	223	26	47	11	35.6%	72.20
11	Amory Kaufman-Young	11th	Providence A	10	229	23	67	41	25.6%	70.74
12	Evan Ting	10th	Park Tudor A	10	236	44	28	22	61.1%	70.34

Rising Stars

Rank	Player	Year	Team	GP	TUH	Powers	Tossups	Negs	P%	PP20TUH
1	Virinchi Tata	10th	Early College at Guilford A	10	238	40	27	14	59.7%	67.23
2	Luke Jankowski	10th	St. Henry	10	224	15	60	30	20.0%	60.27
3	James Weselka	9th	St. Mark's School of Texas C	10	225	15	41	4	26.8%	54.67
4	Elliot Lefebvre	9th	Meadows	10	216	7	47	10	13.0%	48.61
5	Liam Mooney	10th	University School of Nashville A	10	234	22	33	21	40.0%	47.44

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