The Hillsdale College Mock Trial team A placed first at ORCS last weekend and will proceed to the national tournament.
Courtesy | Chloe Noller
Hillsdale College Mock Trial team A is headed to the national championship next month.
The team will compete in the American Mock Trial Association National Tournament in Chicago. Team A, which placed second at nationals last year, won first place in the Opening Round Championship Series tournament last weekend with a score of 6.5 ballots, the highest a Hillsdale team has ever won at ORCS, according to team captain and senior Caleb Sampson.
“It was an excellent tournament,” Sampson said. “After first place at regionals and first place at ORCS, at this point in the season, it’s the most successful competitive season Hillsdale College Mock Trial has ever had.”
Hillsdale team A swept the first two rounds against Syracuse University team D and University of Toronto team C with scores of 2-0 before defeating Dickinson College team A 1.5-0.5 and splitting ballots with Dartmouth College team B for a score of 1-1, according to Pema.
“We were very pleased with the caliber of competition we hit,” Sampson said. “We thought everybody else did an excellent job, and we’re grateful to have walked out with the win knowing the quality of people we competed against.”
After qualifying in ORCS, mock trial teams across the country must prepare an entirely new case for the nationals tournament, according to Pema.
“The fun and also the catch is that you are assigned an entirely new case packet with a new defendant, with a new criminal issue, and with new witnesses,” Pema said.
Sampson said team A has continued to progress steadily through the semester and they hope to continue improving in the weeks to come.
“The key to success at nationals is going to be hyper focus on that case from here until the day we’re competing,” Sampson said. “I think we’re going to keep seeing that linear progress – regionals was better than Great Chicago Fire, ORCS was better than regionals. We hope that nationals is even better.”
Hillsdale College team B did not win a bid to nationals last weekend. This year’s team B is the third most successful team B in Hillsdale history, according to sophomore Nathan Emslie.
The team split ballots 1-1 against Pennsylvania State University team B before losing to Juniata College team B with a score of 1.5-0.5. On the second day of the tournament, Hillsdale team B scored 1-1 against Pennsylvania State University team A and lost 1.5-0.5 against the University of Cincinnati team A, according to Emslie.
The team had a good weekend despite a slow first day, according to Noller.
“We were prepped, we were ready, we worked really hard,” Noller said. “We had a rough start to the tournament, I would say, but our second day was really good. We rallied and went against some pretty difficult teams.”
Emslie also said that the team performed better later in the tournament.
“As far as our best moments, those were in rounds three and four,” Emslie said. “Pretty much all the way around in each of those rounds, objections were clean, statements were strong, cross-examinations were good, and witness presentation was good.”
According to Noller, freshmen Jon Hovance and Campbell Collins performed well at the tournament.
“Jon Hovance, one of the freshmen on the team, he gave his best closing I’ve ever seen in our round against Penn State,” Noller said. “It was just super solid – brought everything together. It was really, really fun to see a really solid end.”
Emslie thanked the team B captains, sophomore Ashley Poole and junior Natalie LeBlanc.
“I’d like to shout out to the captains, Ashley and Natalie,” Emslie said. “This was their first season captaining for both of them, and they’re very solid and very dedicated, and they definitely brought together a good team performance for the season.”
Emslie said team B is looking forward to next year.
“I’m just proud of all the work that everyone put in,” Emslie said. “It was a great season, and we’ll be back.”
