Colo. Springs Cadets Again Finish Among Top CyberPatriot Teams; Place Third

The Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron Wolfpack cadets followed up last year's championship in the Air Force Association's CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Security Competition with a third-place overall finish tonight, marking the third straight year the squadron's entry has finished in the top three.

Colorado Springs cadet teams have now earned two overall crowns, in 2012 and 2017, and two third-place finishes, in 2016 and this year. The squadron was competing in the national finals for the eighth straight year.

This year's team consisted of:​

• Cadet Capts. Taylor Coffey, Zach Cramer and Isaac Stone
   
• Cadet 2nd Lt. Noah Bowe
   
• Cadet Chief Master Sgts. Lexy Belmontes and Natasha Geissler
   
• Coach: Maj. Bill Blatchley
   
• Assistant Coach: Capt. Amy Griswold

The results for CyberPatriot X were announced at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor Hotel in Baltimore. 

Bowe and Coffey were competing for the fourth straight year, which earned them the program’s Cyber All American Award and makes them the third and fourth members of the squadron to achieve that distinction. Cramer and Stone were third-year finalists, while Belmontes and Geissler were first-year competitors. The cadets' third-place national finish earns them $1,000 from Northrop Grumman, the presenting sponsor for CyberPatriot.

In addition, in a first for Civil Air Patrol, two cadet teams from the California Wing’s Fullerton Composite Squadron 56 reached the national finals. 

The Fullerton Composite team members are listed below:
 

"Team Imperium"

• Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Kayla Kim
   
• Cadet Staff Sgts. Clara Kim and Esther Kwon
   
• Cadet Senior Airmen Thomas Hoang, team captain, and Stella Hong
   
• Cadet Airman Katie Cardella
   
• Coach: 1st Lt. Brian Vu

"Team Invicta"

• Cadet 1st Lt. Daniel Hayase, team captain
   
• Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Austin Ahn
   
• Cadet Master Sgt. John Garcia
   
• Cadet Senior Airman Andrew Ordaz
   
• Cadet Airmen 1st Class Simon Kang and Jesse James II
   
• Coach: 2nd Lt. Juan Ordaz

CyberPatriot X attracted 5,584 registered teams this year, 27 percent higher than the 4,404-team field for CyberPatriot IX. Of those teams, 1,717 competed in the All Service Division, with entries coming from CAP, the Naval Sea Cadets and Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy Junior ROTC. The remaining teams competed in the Open Division, representing high schools across the country. The Middle School Division includes team from middle schools and junior high schools.

CAP accounted for 630 teams, including 488 in the All Service Division and 142 in the Middle School Division – 19.3 percent higher than last year’s total CAP team count of 528.

In all, 28 teams competed in the national finals in Baltimore – 13 in the All Service Division, 12 in the Open Division and three in the Middle School Division.

The finalists competed to defend virtual networks and mobile devices from the red team – a professional aggressor team of representatives of several of the organizations that sponsor CyberPatriot.

The finalists faced off in three additional competition components: the Cisco Networking Challenge, the Facebook Challenge and the AT&T Mobile Device competition component, all of which return from previous seasons. These extra challenges help broaden the students’ cybersecurity experience and expose teams to new elements of the many career opportunities available to them.

CyberPatriot, the nation's largest and fastest-growing youth cyber education program, is the AFA's flagship STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program dedicated to strengthening student cyber skills. In addition to the national cyber defense competition, CyberPatriot features AFA CyberCamps, an elementary school cyber education initiative, the CyberPatriot Literature Series and CyberGenerations, a program promoting senior citizen cyber awareness.

Supporters of CyberPatriot include the Northrop Grumman Foundation, presenting sponsor, as well as Cyber Diamond sponsors AT&T, Boeing, Cisco, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Microsoft; Cyber Gold sponsors Facebook, Riverside Research, Splunk and Symantec; and Cyber Silver sponsors Air Force STEM, Air Force Reserve, American Military University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Leidos, Mastercard and University of Maryland University College.