That certainly wouldn’t have crossed my mind.
Let me guess: You weren’t in high school when students had official school email accounts.
The kid got his PSAT results directly and it should have been clear from that that as someone in the top 3% he qualified as a commended student, but not more.
Finalists and final winners count more for colleges and scholarships, but if this wasn’t an anomalous, outlier test, he should have had his SATs as the more important results to send the same signal anyway.