Scary Decisis and De Novo Member, two of Hillsdale College’s three mock trial teams, finished with winning records for the fall after competing in their last tournaments of the semester the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Scary Decisis finished second overall at the Soda City Trials in South Carolina with a record of 7-1, according to sophomore Ashley Poole. It faced off against four teams: University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Georgia Tech University, and University of Virginia.
Poole said the tournament was a good opportunity to compete with teams from other parts of the country.
“It was really fun because it had the best teams of the South in it. We’re up north, obviously, and it’s good to get a feel for how different regions have different styles of mock trial,” Poole said.
Two Scary Decisis members, seniors Konrad Verbaarschott and Abigail Davis, also earned individual awards, according to junior Nathan Emslie. Verbaarschott was the only competitor in the tournament to earn an outstanding witness award for both prosecution and defense.
According to Poole, the tournament was the team’s best performance this semester.
“Everyone being at the peak of their argumentation and then having amazing competitors – it was just a great weekend all around to end the season on,” Poole said.
According to freshman Miriam Ahern, De Novo Member, Hillsdale’s new member mock trial team, competed in the Badger the Witness Invitational tournament at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, taking on Washington University, University of Minnesota, and two Macalester College teams. De Novo Member finished the tournament with a score of 7-5.
“We were apparently half a ballot away from placing,” Ahern said. “We had great competition, too – we got to go up against some really good teams.”
According to Ahern, the tournament was a great learning experience against excellent competition.
“Overall, it went really well,” Ahern said. “We had definitely learned a lot, and because we were so far along in the season, we had our material memorized, so we were just able to have fun with it.”
Jon Hovance, a freshman De Novo Member, said the team rose to the challenge of better competition in this tournament.
“This was definitely our best tournament, performance-wise,” Hovance said. “We hit teams that were much better than we’d seen before, and we held up against them.”
According to Hovance, De Novo Member’s captains, junior Natalie LeBlanc and senior Justin Lee, performed well individually in the tournament. LeBlanc won a witness award and Lee won both a witness award and an attorney award.
According to Hovance, the last tournament of the fall season was bittersweet.
“We were all sad that this was our last tournament together – the teams will change up for the spring season,” Hovance said. “We’ve definitely grown a lot together.”
Looking forward to next semester, Poole said that the teams are eager to compete in the spring.
“This is a great way to see where we’re at for the spring season,” Poole said. “We’ll be going to regionals in early and late February, and we’re very excited to represent Hillsdale next semester.”
