The Hillsdale College Mock Trial program began its 2022-2023 competitive season last weekend, with one of the program’s teams taking fourth place at their first tournament invitational of the season.

“Our opening weekend was exactly what we wanted: tough competition and a great first run of our cases,” program coach Jonathan Church said. 

All three of the program’s teams competed at tournament invitationals from Oct. 15-16. Team Blue placed fourth at the Penn State Happy Valley invitational, winning five and a half out of eight possible judge ballots. 

The program’s other two teams, White and Charger, competed at Case Western Reserve University’s Spartan Throwdown invitational last weekend.

The two-day tournaments featured four rounds and required competitors to compete on both the plaintiff and defense side of the year’s case. The mock trial team is a part of the American Mock Trial Association, which set this year’s civil case as a charge of negligence against an airplane company.

“We are attending more difficult tournaments across the board than we used to attend,” Church said. 

Senior Ethan Tong is a member of Team Blue and won an outstanding plaintiff attorney award at Penn State’s invitational, with a score of 19 out of 20 possible ranks. He said he is proud of how well Team Blue performed against some of the nation’s top teams.

“Placing fourth at this tournament was impressive, especially since according to the tournament directors, 65% of the teams there went to Nationals this last year,” Tong said. “It was a really good competition field, and coming out of it with five and a half ballots was exactly the momentum we wanted going forward.”

Competition was especially intense in the last round of the tournament because Team Blue went up against Tufts University, ranked 2nd in the nation, Tong said.

Tong said the round against Tufts motivated the team to continue to work hard.

“We might have done well, but we know we’ll need to win the big rounds like the one against Tufts in the future if we want to make it to Nationals this year,” he said. 

Lindsey Church, coach of the program’s new member roster, Team Charger, said the fall invitational season is a less-stressful environment designed to perfect case materials and team performance. 

“In the fall season, the tournaments are all practice for the competitive spring season,” she said. “While winning is great, our biggest priorities are developing case theories, helping new members understand the fundamentals of mock trial, and working with returning members on advanced skills.”

Lindsey Church said she is proud of the new member team’s performance at their first tournament. 

“I have been impressed with how hardworking they are,” she said. “Most of them knew little to nothing about mock trial a month and a half ago but were able to hold their own against seasoned opponents this weekend.”