Hillsdale College’s mock trial invitational season wrapped up with Hillsdale teams competing in the University of Michigan Invitiational and the Indiana University Invitational that position them well for their regional competition.
Hillsdale teams A and B competed at the University of Michigan Invitational on Jan. 21 and 22 and received second and third, respectively, receiving numerous individual awards. Hilsldale’s A and C teams also traveled to Indiana Jan. 27-28, finishing in sixth place, positioning them in a good place to advance beyond the regional competition later this month.
“I am really proud of our teams this year,” senior Gwen Hodge said. “This is our most competitive year, for sure.”
At the University of Michigan, senior Jon Church, team A captain, won an attorney award. Junior Anna Fair Matthes and freshman Carson Waites also received awards for their performance as witnesses for the A team.
Senior Gwen Hodge, on the B team, won a witness award with a perfect score for her portrayal of a plaintiff witness.
“This was a part I had never played before,” Hodge said.
Teams receive information packets about their characters to memorize for trial.
“The affidavit is between eight to 12 pages, and you have to memorize what it says so you can be prepared for cross-examination from the other team,” Hodge said.
Although Hodge has earned witness awards before, to receive a perfect score is uncommon. Each judge has to independently rank the individual in first place to receive a flawless score.
“Her perfect score is a big deal,” Church said. “You can’t do better than that.”
At Indiana University, Hillsdale teams traveled competed with teams they will likely face later in February at regionals. Its A and C teams squared off against Michigan State, Case Western, and Indiana universities as well as University of Michigan, among others. Neither Hillsdale team, however, placed high enough to take home a trophy.
“The A team finished sixth, which is one place behind the trophies,” Church said. “The good news is at regionals, the top seven teams advance, so we are seeing consistency in our team.”
Although Church received a perfect attorney award at the Indiana Invitational, he was quick to highlight freshman Lauren Eicher’s witness award for team C.
“It is always exciting to see our freshman develop over the season,” he said. “They faced some hard teams but continued to press forward.”
Now that the invitational tournament season is complete, the Hillsdale teams are preparing to compete advance past regionals. There are multiple different regions across the country that will field 20-30 teams, Church said. The top seven from each will then feed into the Opening Round Championship Series, the first competitions in nationals.
“In preparation, we are taking our cases and trying to bulletproof the case theories,” Church said. “We will be playing teams that have experience at nationals, so we have to be ready for a blood bath.”
But senior Jennifer Matthes, who has participated in mock trial since her freshman year, said she is confident in Hillsdale’s teams.
“The strength of our program gives me a lot of confidence to perform really well,” she said.