Most Wicked Day 2026

Hole Sports opened with a five-way knot behind Cory Bartholomew. Bret Welch, Brooks Rumney, Emma Rodgers, Jake Rodgers, and Cory all reached 6 points before the medal was settled. Cory survived sudden-death Bucket Pong, took the 2-point bonus, and left the first event on 8.

Kyle Steinmeyer was already 4 points back. It looked small in a six-event day. It would become the first piece of a comeback that kept having to restart.

Kyle and Brooks are best friends. Twice a week, at 6 a.m., they play singles Pickleball against each other. In Round 2 they won together. By the end, they had become the event's last two names: 10 points each before the medal. Kyle won the tiebreak and took the bonus.

That single result produced a perfect three-way tie at the top of the day: Kyle, Brooks, and Cory on 16.

Pickleball, Dodgeball, and Wiffleball were played in beaming heat. At lunch, the group that normally stayed together scattered into their cars to eat in the air conditioning. It was the kind of heat that made finishing the schedule feel like part of the competition.

Bret Welch found the winning side in all five Dodgeball rounds, then took the event bonus for 7. Brooks kept collecting points around him. By the final Wiffleball game, the day's middle belonged to Brooks on the scoreboard. Then, with two outs left, the weather changed all at once.

Spikeball began in a light rain. The rain cleared as the games went on, though the wind kept making every touch less predictable. Kyle won all four rounds with four different partners: Devon Reno, Hunter Bass, Brooks, and Nic Arnold.

The last round put Kyle's team directly against Aaron Hilliard's team. They entered tied on event points, so the matchup was effectively for the Spikeball championship. Kyle's fourth win, this time with Nic, settled it. The 2-point medal made it a 10-point event, the biggest contribution on his final card.

Brooks still scored 6, but Kyle erased the three-point deficit and entered the Combine ahead 29 to 28. The championship had turned, but only by one point.

The Combine kept passing the spotlight. Hadley and Lauren Steinmeyer were the only players to make Bucket Pong. Cory, Christian, and Nic hit the Golf Chip target. Brooks, Nic, and Jake scored in Frisbee. By the time the overall race narrowed again, the entire field had left fingerprints on the final event.

Kyle missed the first three stations while Brooks scored 1, erasing Kyle's one-point overall lead. Both reached the outfield for 2 in Wiffle HR, so the championship was tied with two stations left. At Field Goal, Kyle had to choose: take the two-point attempt, or back up for the three-point kick and force Brooks to match it. He debated it, chose three, and made the 30-yarder. Brooks tried the same kick and missed.

Kyle had made the 30-yard field goal in 2025 too. He is now 2-for-2 from that distance at Most Wicked Day, with both makes arriving in title-deciding Combines. In QB Accuracy, he went first needing only 1. He hit the target, and the championship was clinched before the final scores were tallied. Christian later hit the three-point target, the best throw of the station, while Devon also scored 1.

The Combine medal lifted Kyle to 8 for the event and turned a one-point lead entering it into a 6-point final margin. The number looked comfortable only after the day's biggest decision had worked.

Kyle's 37 is the highest raw championship total in Most Wicked Day history, with the important caveat that the event count and scoring formats have changed. His 6-point margin is also the largest of the four editions.

Brooks finished second on 31, a total that would have matched the winning score in 2024 and 2025. In 2026 it was the number that made Kyle's third championship his hardest-earned runaway.