{"id":29593,"date":"2026-06-12T09:28:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=29593"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:28:44","slug":"marshalls-cybersecurity-students-receive-top-scores-in-national-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2026\/06\/marshalls-cybersecurity-students-receive-top-scores-in-national-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall\u2019s cybersecurity students receive top scores in national competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A Marshall University cybersecurity student team placed 65th out of more than 500 teams in the Spring 2026 National Cyber League (NCL) competition, continuing the university\u2019s strong showing in national cybersecurity events.<\/p>\n<p>The team, guided by Dr. Paulus Wahjudi, professor of computer science, competed against students from colleges and universities across the country in challenges designed to test skills commonly required in today\u2019s cybersecurity workforce. Each year, more than 10,000 students from high schools, colleges and universities participate in the NCL competition.<\/p>\n<p>Marshall\u2019s performance also placed the university first among participating Sun Belt Conference schools and second among West Virginia schools competing in the event.<\/p>\n<p>Wahjudi says this team\u2019s performance was superior, demonstrating their talent, dedication and teamwork.<\/p>\n<p>The National Cyber League presents challenges that mirror real-world cybersecurity tasks, and our students competed at a very high level against teams from across the country,\u201d Wahjudi said. \u201cTheir performance reflects the strength of Marshall\u2019s cybersecurity program and the hard work they have invested in developing practical security skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Student Thomas Neal earned the highest individual ranking among Marshall participants, placing 187th out of 7,006 competitors nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Marshall team members who participated in the team challenge are Kendra Adkins, Brandon Anderson, Colton Gebhard, Bethany Ledford, William Matusic, Ethan Scott and Connor Stonestreet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe success of our students in the National Cyber League reflects the hands-on, mission-focused education we provide,\u201d said Alex Donathan, executive director of Marshall\u2019s Institute for Cyber Security. \u201cWe are incredibly proud of these students and this team, and grateful for the leadership and mentorship of Dr. Wahjudi, whose support has helped guide our students\u2019 success. Their achievements demonstrate the skills and readiness our graduates bring to the cybersecurity workforce.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More information about Marshall\u2019s cybersecurity programs and initiatives is available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cyber\">www.marshall.edu\/cyber<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Marshall University cybersecurity student team placed 65th out of more than 500 teams in the Spring 2026 National Cyber League (NCL) competition, continuing the university\u2019s strong showing in national cybersecurity events. The team, guided by Dr. Paulus Wahjudi, professor of computer science, competed against students from colleges and universities across the country in challenges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,82,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cecs","category-institute-for-cyber-security","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29595,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29593\/revisions\/29595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}