The Academies of Loudoun Cyber Competition Club has claimed the top spot at the 2025 Commonwealth Cyber Cup Finals, securing first-place victories in both the Beginner (N00b) and Advanced (CrackerJack) tiers. This marks the second consecutive year the Academies Loudoun (ACL) have dominated the statewide cybersecurity competition, hosted by the Virginia Cyber Range.
The Commonwealth Cyber Cup is a Jeopardy-style, capture the flag (CTF) competition where high school teams from across Virginia tackle challenges in web application security, network traffic analysis, cryptography, reverse engineering and more.
On March 1, two Academies teams, made up of students from the three ACL programs - AOS, AET and MATA - joined competitors from Briar Woods, Independence and Stone Bridge high schools at Germanna Community College in Culpeper. Both Academies teams returned home carrying first-place trophies, continuing the school’s legacy of cybersecurity excellence.
The Beginner Tier team finished with the fourth-highest score overall and secured first place in the Beginner Tier. The team included: Ryan Mallet (captain), Arnav Tupalli, Srujan Chilakapati, Anish Talla, Eugene Choi and Kavin Muralikrishnan – all AET freshmen and sophomores.
The Advanced Team successfully defended its 2024 championship title, maintaining the top spot throughout the competition. The team included: Aneesha Koninty (captain), Sebastian Boyles, Shyaam Mukundan, Cooper Roe and Yogesh Thambidurai.
Junior Beckham Elwinger earned the most individual points on the Advanced team, securing third place overall in the individual competition.
Congratulations to both teams for their outstanding achievements and for successfully defending their Commonwealth Cyber Cup title.