The Hillsdale College Mock Trial Team made history after receiving their first bid to the national tournament last weekend. Two teams – 1298 and 1299 – competed at the Open Round Championship Series in DeKalb, Illinois last weekend. 1298 finished fourth in the tournament with a 6-2 record and the highest strength of schedule of any team. 1299 finished 2-5-1 after a weekend of tough competition.
Freshman Abby Davis and senior team captain Jean-Luc Belloncle won All-National attorney awards and freshman Njomëza Pema won an All-National witness award. Belloncle said this was the perfect result as he nears the end of his mock trial career.
“Going into the awards ceremony, I didn’t know if this would be a continuation of the last three years, having not made it to nationals,” Belloncle said. “It feels like there’s been a payoff for all the work we’ve done. It was a very satisfying ending for the culmination of all my time in mock trial.”
Because the tournament fell on the last weekend of spring break, team members arrived back on campus Wednesday evening in order to prepare for the tournament. Belloncle explained how having a few days of vacation actually helped the students rest and rejuvenate before the tournament.
“Not getting the full spring break is nasty, but having days of break before the tournament contributed to our success because everyone had a lot more energy,” Belloncle said. “We typically have a round Friday night after a full week of assignments and classes. Here, we had a round after almost a full week of break.”
Both teams spent all of Thursday scrimmaging against their coaches in order to polish their performances. Coaches Jon and Lindsey Church wrote and prepared full-length cases in order to create as realistic of scrimmages as possible.
“Usually, we have the teams scrimmage against each other, but this year, Lindsey and I wrote cases to try and mimic other teams that we’d seen on the circuit,” Jon Church said. “It was a lot of work, but it was great preparation for the teams.”
On Friday, the teams left early in the morning and drove five hours to DeKalb, Illinois, for the competition. Belloncle said they spent most of the car ride relaxing, sleeping, and attempting to preserve energy so they would be ready to go for the first round.
Team 1298 won five ballots and only lost one during the first three rounds of the tournament, setting them up for a very important fourth round against Tufts University’s A team, who is ranked ninth in the country. Church thought the team would have to win at least one ballot against Tufts in order to get a bid to nationals. Church explained this was the exact same situation the team was in last year: needing to win a ballot against Tufts University in order to advance.
“It was the same thing, second verse. It was horribly poetic,” Church said. “Truly, it was the best round HCMT ever had, and Tufts was phenomenal, they were just wonderful. It’s one of those rounds we could have lost, we could have won, or we could have split, but thank God it was a split.”
After the round, freshman attorney Abby Davis described how the team shook hands with the members of the Tufts team and then spent some time together before the awards ceremony.
“The other team cleared out and then it was just us in the room, so we all got together and talked about everything that happened in that round,” Davis said. “We all prayed, thanking God for our season and for the opportunity to compete together. We had so much pent up stress and energy that we were just able to release it, and it was very sweet to do that together.”
At the awards ceremony, Tufts University A claimed first place, with a record of 7-1. After Tufts’ record was announced, Church knew team 1298 earned a bid to nationals.
“I knew we’d gone to nationals as soon as they said Tufts was 7-1,” Church said. “It hasn’t even really sunk in yet. There’s so much numbness from the fact that we’ve been here so many times before, so it has yet to sink in.”
The National Tournament will be held at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on April 8 through 10. The American Mock Trial Association released a new case for the tournament last Sunday evening. Church explained team 1298 will write, memorize, and begin scrimmaging within the next two weeks in order to prepare.
“I’m excited. It always makes me sad when we read the Nationals’ case and I think what could we do with this?” Church said. “This year, we’ve got nine people who are really excited to dive into the new case, and it’s just as exciting that we’re finally getting a chance to go and compete where several Hillsdale Mock Trial teams have belonged.”
