UNMC’s medical students marked an important milestone at Match Day 2026.
The annual ceremony gave the UNMC College of Medicine the chance to celebrate the 124 med students matching into residency programs across the country.
Friday’s event held the tension for a moment as the UNMC students waited to open envelopes revealing each of their hosts, specialties and locations for their medical residencies following their upcoming graduation.
When the time arrived Friday, accomplishment and uncertainty met in a moment of resolution, complete with cheers, hugs and proud smiles around the ceremony at the Omaha Design Center.
“If it hasn’t sunk in already, you’re all going to be doctors,” Bradley Britigan, MD, the dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, told the students to cheers just prior to their big reveal.
See photos from UNMC Match Day 2026 in this Flickr album.
Sophia Sanchez cried tears of joy as she discovered her residency assignment – HealthPartners Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the emergency medicine program at Regions Hospital.
“I’m so happy,” she said, with her family and boyfriend surrounding her in support. “It’s my first choice. It feels like home.”
As the students crossed a stage to announce their assignment, UNMC med students and couple Keegan Schuchart and Grace Moravec walked together before reaching the podium.
“We’re going to UMass!” Schuchart announced. Schuchart, who is from Lincoln, placed in emergency medicine, Moravec, of David City, Nebraska, in internal medicine.
Med student Trevin Ball foreshadowed his assignment as he walked up to the song “Danger Zone” from the jet fighter movie “Top Gun.”
Ball placed in a UNMC-Offutt Air Force Base family medicine combined program, with hopes that he could someday practice in aerospace medicine.
Ball said he decided to enter medical school after being disqualified from being a pilot in the Navy.
He said he hopes he can be a shining light to others in that circumstance, showing there are other ways to serve the military and the country.
“I think it’s really special I still have the opportunity to do that,” he said.
The overall Match Day results highlighted the broad impact of the medical education program at UNMC. In all, the 124 matching students will be located in 30 different states – which the students pinned on a U.S. map to mark another tradition.
A total of 42 students matched in Nebraska – more than one-third of the matches. And more than half of the students – 66, or 53% – earned residency assignments in primary care, covering specialties that include family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, among others.
Wendy Grant, MD, the college of medicine’s senior associate dean of student affairs, took pride watching the students celebrating their accomplishments with their families and classmates.
As they head into their residencies, Dr. Grant said, they will find their new family – their new brothers and sisters.
“It is a whole new beginning,” she said.
The 2026 ceremony also marked a moment of change for Dr. Grant. After 15 years as assistant and then senior associate dean, she will return to her full-time practice in transplant surgery, where she remains a professor.
As she readied herself for her final Match Day ceremony as supervisor, Dr. Grant still trained her focus on the students.
“I feel really good for them,” she said. “For me, I’ll still come every year.”
