by Cara Ramer, Student Public Relations Writer After hours of defending simulated networks against coordinated cyberattacks, a team of Cedarville University students secured first place in one of two Midwest Divisions of the NCAE Cyber Games on Feb. 7, 2026 — and one member of the winning team has yet to graduate from high school. For Kieran Klukas, a high school senior from Westerville, Ohio, taking dual enrollment courses at Cedarville, competing in a collegiate-level cybersecurity competition was an unexpected opportunity. After attending the university’s summer cybersecurity camp, Klukas discovered a passion for cybersecurity and began pursuing the field academically. Klukas sought additional hands-on opportunities within Cedarville’s cybersecurity program, which ultimately led to his selection for the NCAE Cyber Games team. Dual enrollment senior excels in collegiate cybersecurity competition The competition follows a red team-blue team format in which industry professionals and graduate students attempt to breach the systems of competing teams. Participants must defend network infrastructure, maintain system uptime and respond to live attacks in a scenario designed to simulate real-world cybersecurity threats facing businesses, government agencies and critical infrastructure. NCAE Cyber Games: red team–blue team live-fire format Over seven hours, the competition operated as a live-fire exercise, with industry professionals deploying real exploits against each team’s systems. From the opening minutes, services were “catching on fire” as the red team exposed vulnerabilities across the machines. Klukas shifted rapidly between systems, patching weaknesses and shutting down access points as they appeared. By the final stretch, Cedarville was one of the only teams still operational, making it a primary target. Klukas spent the last hours of the competition jumping from service to service, eliminating threats and refusing to let their systems go dark. Cedarville winning team roster and majors Cedarville’s winning team included computer engineering, computer science and cyber operations