The team put in a ton of hours and a lot of work making scripts, practicing common hardening methods, and constantly putting time into understanding the systems and the best ways to prevent attacks from happening.
Over the weekend of March 27–28, Messiah’s MACCDC team competed in the 2026 Regionals. I’m proud of the team’s hard work and performance. We had a strong first day, often staying in 1st or 2nd in service scoring, and although we struggled at times, we recovered well. We started the second day strong, keeping pace with other teams, but increased attacks made it harder to maintain services. Despite dropping on the leaderboard, the team stayed positive and gave their best effort.
In the end, Messiah finished in 4th place (to the best of our knowledge). We placed behind the University of Virginia in 1st, Liberty University in 2nd, and Penn State University in 3rd.
As one of the team’s captains, I couldn’t be prouder of how everyone performed this year. This was, without a doubt, the strongest showing Messiah has had at regionals since the team was started 4 years ago. I pray for the team’s continued success and growth, and that one day they get on the podium.
I want to thank, applaud, and congratulate the team – Christopher Copeland, Ryan Scannell, Michael DeVito, Austin King, Eli Kalmbacher, Isaac Zimmerman, Harley Freeny – For such a great year of competition and all the hard work everyone put in. I also want to thank our coach, David Bibighaus, for teaching the team both in the class and outside, and for mentoring all of us during all the competitions through the years.
> Thanks to team co-captain Brandan Snook for submitting this post.
