MHS Warriors win state cyber crown, head to national semis

Maricopa High School’s Warriors of the Net clinched the state championship Dec. 20 at the U.S. Air Force CyberPatriot Competition.

The team will compete in the national semi-finals Friday for the right to represent MHS and Arizona at the national finals next month in Bethesda, Md.

The Warriors of the Net most recently finished as platinum winners over 40 statewide teams.

“We will be competing in the hopes that we will make the top 13 teams to go to finals,” said team captain Nicolas Yendrzeski.

Asked how the team is preparing for the competition, Yendrzeski said, “We’ve been practicing. We have a really solid team. We all pull our weight … I feel like we have a pretty good shot at it.”

He and his teammates have complementary skills that round out the team.

The team is tasked with finding vulnerabilities in computer cybersecurity systems and fixing them in the competition.

The Warriors scored in the top 5% nationally of 3,400 teams. This is Maricopa High School’s third state title in the past five years.

CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air & Space Forces Association that encourages K-12 students to explore careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas.

At the core of the program is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which challenges high school and middle school students to secure virtual networks.

Warriors of the Net team members are Yendrzeski, Kaden Durovka, Bryson Perez, Andrew Johnson, Donald Price and Tyler Crider.

Durovka is server administrator, Crider is the Linux specialist, and both Johnson and Perez set up networks and troubleshoot. Price is also part of the networking section.

Warriors team members all look forward to careers in computer science, save for Yendrzeski, who plans a future in public service and politics.

MHS also fielded the Windows Explorers Team in the state competition. It was the first time the team competed in the Silver Division and earned a placement in the top 50% statewide.

Windows Explorers team members are Mason Raymond, Asher Hyde, Christian Runkel, Cameron Dudley and Yushua Hasan.

“This championship not only highlights the exceptional talents of Maricopa High School’s cybersecurity students but also underscores the critical role the upcoming generation plays in safeguarding against future technological challenges,” said Mishell Terry, Maricopa Unified School District spokesperson.

Terry said the wins mark a significant milestone for the high school’s 24PinTech CTE program.