MECC’s Cybersecurity Team Ranked 60th in Nation

Big Stone Gap — Mountain Empire Community College’s Capture the Flag Cybersecurity team finished its season ranking 60th overall out of all Colleges and Universities in the nation and 21st in the Eastern Division.  

The team, which is comprised of students Macarthur Inbody and Staci Fraley, competed against 350 schools. MECC’s team ranked above larger schools in the Eastern U.S. including John Hopkins University, New York University, Radford University, and Northern Virginia Community College. The competition includes challenges based on networking, ethical hacking, computer forensics, computer programming, software vulnerabilities, log file manipulation, social engineering, and more.

“We are extremely proud of the amazing performance of MECC’s Cybersecurity Team in the final season rankings, particularly as this is the Team’s inaugural season,” said MECC President Kristen Westover. “Macarthur and Staci put in many hours of effort resulting in their extraordinary outcomes.”

In the team game, MECC’s CTF team “The Transcendentalists”, reached an overall ranking of 104th out of 738 teams competing. MECC competed in the gold bracket during the team game designated for the top 15% of players overall.

In the individual game, MECC’s Macarthur Inbody placed 57th overall while competing in the gold bracket. MECC’s Staci Fraley placed 922nd overall and in 361st place while competing in the silver bracket. The gold bracket is designated for the top 15% of all players, and the silver bracket is designated for the next 35% of players(aka top 50% overall). An estimated 3,461 players competed in the individual game. 

For more information on MECC’s Cybersecurity Program or the Capture the Flag Cybersecurity Team, please contact CTF Coach and Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Ritchie Deel at 276.523.2400 ext. 444 or at rdeel@mecc.edu.