From Regional Champions to Nationals: NJIT Dominates at the 2025 NCAE Cyber Games

“Fake it 'til you make it” won’t cut it when defending against cybersecurity attacks, especially when the “bad actors” are some of the best in the industry.

However, if there has ever been a model for “practice makes perfect,” three NJIT student teams are prime examples for their outcomes in the Northeast 2 division of the National Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE) Cyber Games. This includes the Highlanders-1 team, which not only scored first place in the region but advanced to third place nationally and became the highest-ranked school in the Northeast region.

All teammates are members of the NJIT Information and Cybersecurity Club (NICC), a student organization that has become a juggernaut for providing access to everything from advanced training to hacking competitions. The team also consists of members who are either current recipients or prospective candidates for the elite CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) Program, which is administered through the NJIT Secure Computing Initiative and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

NJIT has earned its place among some of the best schools in the Northeast region in past years, but 2025 has taken them to an unprecedented level, and brought accolades from the NCAE itself.

The National Security Agency-sponsored NCAE Cyber Games is an intense seven-hour defense-style competition where teams must protect their IT infrastructure against attacks by the red team, composed of experts from various areas of the cybersecurity industry and academia. The competition also contains a capture the flag (CTF) portion, where teams need to solve cybersecurity challenges to earn points.

“In simple terms, it’s about keeping the system on and kicking the bad guys out,” said Ben Topolosky, captain for Highlanders-1.

Noah Jacobson, Aaron Agcaoili and Judrianne Mahigne won Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player in regionals, and Most Improved Player in invitationals respectively. Most Valuable Player titles were also given to Hamdi Korreshi (Highlanders-2) and Jesse Gonnerman (Highlanders-3), while Hung Tran (Highlanders-2) and Samar Yagoubi (Highlanders-3) earned Most Improved Player. Tomasz Brauntsch, who competed in past years but could not participate in this competition due to a 2-year limit, took the instrumental role of managing team recruitment and training.

Highlanders-1 also achieved the highest score in Infrastructure. Topolosky credits a three-month commitment to building scripts with Jacobson — using programs with which neither was familiar — for giving them an edge over the fierce competition. The result was a playbook for problem-solving for just about any scenario.

“It’s hard to train for a competition where you don’t know what obstacles you’ll be facing,” said Topolosky.

However, when the team was the only one to get all green signals across the board for keeping their systems running, the score shot up. “This was the point where I thought we might have a chance to win,” he continued.

Topolosky credits a marathon-length night mastering another resource — SSL reverse proxy (which decrypts encrypted traffic) as another one of the many factors pushing Highlanders-1 ahead.

Even NCAE commented that they often never see a regional team hit a score that high.

Next stop: The 2025 Invitationals in Orlando, Florida, where Highlanders-1 would ultimately place third among the best schools nationwide.

Preparation began with a solid month of “hitting the books” and identifying where the biggest improvements were needed (backing up servers would ultimately prove to be crucial).

The 6 a.m. flight to Florida on competition weekend did not deter the group from having some fun in the sun. One mission was to find the best place for authentic Cuban sandwiches.

The team devoted the rest of the night to strategizing and delving into Gravwell, a log manager used as a tool to find how hackers infiltrate systems. Topolosky and Jacobson practiced feverishly until 1 a.m. – then were up again at 4 a.m. to continue cramming until the time came for the team to face collegiate cybersecurity’s version of the MMA Octagon.

In actuality, the match area was a U-shaped table next to Boston University, where teammates shouted at each other and hackers walked around taunting players amidst the noise and confusion.

This competition is much more than a game. The event promotes experiential learning, builds skills and teamwork, and provides valuable opportunities to network and explore where aspiring professionals can find their place in the field.

Passionate preparation indeed paid off. Highlanders-1 went from eighth place in the first half to third, becoming the only team to completely “go green” while keeping their infrastructure up.

NICC President Trent Gwathney asserted, “This is a major achievement for NJIT, reinforcing NICC’s reputation in cybersecurity competitions while also highlighting NJIT’s commitment to cybersecurity education and excellence.”

The teams:

Highlanders-1 (Regionals): Aaron Agcaoili (MIP), Ben Topolosky (Captain), Frank Santos, Judrianne Mahigne, Jillian Jacinto*, Matthew Villanueva, Noah Jacobson (MVP)*, Nathaniel Macasaet, Patrick Krawczyk*, William McCoy

Highlanders-1 (Invitationals): Aaron Agcaoili, Ben Topolosky (Captain), David Bode-Disu, Frank Santos, Judrianne Mahigne (MIP), Jillian Jacinto*, Matthew Villanueva, Noah Jacobson (MVP)*, Patrick Krawczyk*, William McCoy

Highlanders-2: David Bode-Disu (Captain), Dylan Toriello, Hamdi Korreshi (MVP), Janish Suneja*, Jake Jarecki, Mahmoud Ezat, Mizan Modak, Nicholas Zubrzycki*, Hung Tran (MIP), Stefan Peele

Highlanders-3: Andrew Gomez*, Christian Benavente, Isa Ali, Joseph Antonucci, Jimmy Silva, Jesse Gonnerman (MVP), Lea Schaar, Stefan Robinson, Samar Yagoubi (MIP), Trent Gwathney (Captain)*

*Current CyberCorps® SFS Recipients