Senior mock trial team captain Jean-Luc Belloncle won an All-American Attorney award at the National Championship Tournament last weekend, where the Hillsdale College Mock Trial team competed for the first time.
The award is given to the top 10 competitors at the tournament, placing Belloncle in the top 20 attorneys in the country, Coach Jonathan Church said.
The HCMT team competed in a division with 24 other teams. After four rounds, the team finished with a record of four wins, six losses, and two ties.
Belloncle said no one was disappointed with their performance considering it was the team’s first time competing at the tournament.
With only three weeks to prepare a new case, Belloncle said the process leading up to nationals was extremely stressful, but the strength of competition made it worth it.
“Once we arrived at nationals, it was just a great time with excitement and high energy,” Belloncle said. “It was the first chance we’ve really had to compete against the best, and only the best, so that was fun.”
Church said an impressive aspect of this accomplishment is that most of the competitors were underclassmen. The team consisted of two freshmen, four sophomores, one junior, and two seniors.
The team enjoyed watching and competing against the top programs because of the quality of cases presented, Belloncle said.
“It was definitely interesting to see how innovative you can be with the case problems that they give you,” Belloncle said. “We had a lot of really good rounds against really good teams.”
HCMT has worked toward the goal of competing in nationals since the program started. Belloncle said he was honored to be part of the team which made program history.
“It was nice that it happened right before I graduated, and at the end of the tournament, it was bittersweet,” Belloncle said. “A good note to end on, but it is also an ending.”
The team qualified for the national tournament at the Opening Round Championship Series on March 20. Church explained it was the program’s fifth time trying to earn a bid to nationals in the last round.
“It was a big moment for the program to finally break that mental block or curse or whatever you want to call it,” Church said.
Sophomore Konrad Verbaarschott said the students weren’t alone in making this opportunity possible.
“We would not be where we are without the backing of Dr. Kiledal behind the scenes and then Coach and his wonderful wife, Lindsey,” Verbaarschott said.
Verbaarschott said the people competing were handpicked by the coaches, and it is the character of the individuals that made the team successful.
“I firmly believe that our praying before rounds, the sleepless nights of Coach and Lindsey, and the faithfulness of all of our competitors are the things that by the grace of God got us as far as we did,” Verbaarschott said.