Del Norte’s CyberAegis Sweeps CyberPatriot Nationals Once Again

The CyberPatriot XIII nationals took place virtually from March 19-21. Two CyberAegis teams from Del Norte High School, CyberAegis Cobalt and CyberAegis Nobelium, won the championship and runner up places respectively. In addition, Justin Lin (’21), member of CyberAegis Nobelium, became the first person in the open, or high school,  division to receive the Cyber All-American award in CyberPatriot history. This award is given to “exceptional individuals” who have competed at the CyberPatriot nationals in each of their high school years.

In the open division, CyberAegis Cobalt took first place in all of the components of the CyberPatriot XIII national finals. CyberAegis Nobelium won the runner-up in the nationals and third place in the Cisco NetAcad Challenge.

Tanay Shah (’22), captain of CyberAegis Cobalt, says, “It feels amazing to think that we started years back as clueless kids and year and after year progressed to the top. I think everyone on our team is super relieved that we won. It would have been really unfortunate if we spent all that time only to place lower than the top. We spent an unbelievable amount of time preparing and practicing each week, somewhere around 12-14 hours just dedicated for team meetings.”

Shah says, “I think the main factor behind our motivation was the fact that the first place prize was within reach. In the past we’ve always been a strong team but the first place prize was unrealistic. This year with an even better team and hours of practice we knew that it was entirely possible for us to win and that possibility gave us the push we needed to try our absolute best.”

Justin Lin, a senior at DNHS and member of CyberAegis Nobelium, became the first person in the open division to receive the Cyber All-American award. 

Lin states, “It feels pretty great to see my accomplishments being recognized, especially because I am the first in open division to receive the award. It also feels a little sad that I was the only one this year to get the award, because I felt like some others deserved it too.”

Lin has competed in CyberPatriot for five years, starting in eighth grade. He explains how he was motivated during his participation in those competitions: “My main motivation to compete was that I constantly learned new things every year and saw improvement in my skills.”