University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu students participated last semester in the National Cyber League (NCL) biannual cybersecurity skills competition, in individual and team-based events, and placed UH West O‘ahu 9th nationally among over 8,520 students from 490 colleges and universities.
The Cyber Power Rankings — for the fall 2025 competition season — were created by Cyber Skyline in partnership with NCL. Every year, over 10,000 students from more than 500 colleges and universities and 100 high schools across the U.S. participate in the NCL competitions, according to the Cyber Skyline website.
These rankings represent the ability of students from these schools to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform. Students had to identify hackers from forensic data, pentest and audit vulnerable websites, recover from ransomware attacks, and more, according to the website. Schools are ranked based on their top team performance, their top student’s individual performance, and the aggregate individual performance of their students.
Dr. David Zeichick, NCL Commissioner, commended UH West O‘ahu team members for their “outstanding performance.”
“Their collaborative effort and dedication to the NCL Competition is worthy of praise and recognition,” Zeichick wrote in a letter to UH West O‘ahu, adding that the students “be recognized for their admirable achievement that showcased their individual skills, collaborative performance, and desire to grow and learn as cybersecurity professionals.”
He also praised the students’ coach, Anthony Eich, for his “dedication, support, and encouragement that has enabled the success of the students,” Zeichick wrote.
Eich is a UH West O‘ahu cyber competitions and cybersecurity instructor/lecturer, and a UH West O‘ahu graduate. As a student, Eich also competed in previous NCL competitions.
“Participation in the National Cyber League gives UH West O‘ahu students the opportunity to validate their skills against peers across the country in a real-world, hands-on cybersecurity environment,” Eich said. “Competitions like NCL require not only technical ability, but discipline, persistence, and critical thinking under pressure.”
He added, “I’m proud of how our team performed overall — their placement reflects the steady growth of our program and the hard work they’ve put in both inside and outside the classroom.”
The UH West O‘ahu NCL fall 2025 teams and members are:
- UH West O‘ahu Red Team [22nd out of 4,214, Standard Bracket (typically first-time competitors); 36th out of 4,688 Overall – Nationally]: Jomer Calip, Steven Dinwiddie, Christopher Ebel, Maria Isabel Mendez, Jamal Timbobolan, John Wright, and Jiaye Zhou
- UH West O‘ahu “Hello Kitty Island Adventurers” Team [7th out of 454, Experienced Bracket (returning or advanced competitors); 11th out of 4,688 Overall – Nationally]: Sean Belisle, Nyla Boneza, Blix Hazen, Joel Kawamae, Chloe Kurashima, Kiana Merez, and Branden Ramos
- Also, of note: Top Individual Game Performance: Sean Belisle (8th place out of 7,876, Standard Bracket)
UH West O‘ahu Red Team members Steven Dinwiddie, Christopher Ebel, and John Wright — all of whom are double majoring in Cybersecurity with a concentration in Cyber Operations and Applied Science with a concentration in Information Security and Assurance — and Maria Isabel Mendez, who is majoring in Applied Science with a concentration in Information Security and Assurance, reflected on their NCL experience.
“What I like about NCL is that it challenges your technical skills and shows where you are weak,” Wright said. … “Overall, NCL helped me identify my weak areas and strengthen my attention to detail, which is critical in the workforce.”
“NCL is basically structured chaos at its finest,” Ebel said. “One moment you feel like a cybersecurity genius, the next you’re humbled by a single missing character. The competition forces you to think clearly under pressure, apply everything you’ve learned, and trust your team to have your back.”
“What I enjoyed most about participating in the NCL challenges was experiencing the fun and competitive environment, which motivated me to learn and grow,” Mendez said. “The technical challenges gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of cybersecurity concepts and apply hands-on skills I have learned at Honolulu Community College and UH West O‘ahu, while also exposing me to new tools and techniques.”
Dinwiddie said, “While NCL is undoubtedly challenging, the competition pushed me to apply classroom knowledge to problems that felt like the real thing, solidifying what I’d learned while exposing personal weaknesses, a critical component of growing both professionally and personally.”
He continued, “What I enjoyed most was being forced to think creatively, sometimes pursuing paths that seemed like dead ends only to find they led to a breakthrough. That moment of ‘there’s no way this is going to work’ turning into ‘wow, that actually did work!’ never gets old.”