For the first time in its history, all three Hillsdale College Mock Trial teams earned a bid to the Opening Round Championship Series on March 10.
The American Mock Trial Association’s competitive season consists of three qualifying tournaments: Regionals, Opening Round Championship Series, and Nationals. Teams must place in the top percentage of the tournament to earn a bid and advance to the next competition.
“Having three teams in a position to earn bids to ORCS is a sign of program strength and depth that is an accurate reflection of the time and effort that all of the program’s students put into the competition,” coach Jonathan Church said.
Teams 1077 and 1078 competed at the Regional tournament at Michigan State University on the weekend of Feb. 9-11. Both groups finished with a record of 5-2-1, earning them honorable mentions at the award ceremony and top positions on the open bid list. Sophomores Abigail Wagoner, Natalie LeBlanc, and freshman Patrick McDonald all earned awards for their performances that weekend.
Church said the teams’ performances at this tournament were particularly impressive because of the number and quality of other teams competing in Lansing. With only 13 teams participating, there was a higher probability of facing some of the best mock trial programs in the country.
“With such a small field, teams 1077 and 1078 had to face off against teams like Michigan State and Case Western’s A squads that have been to nationals recently,” Church said.
Competing against highly-ranked teams, LeBlanc said the weekend was emotionally charged. The tournament’s high-level of skill made it even more impressive for team 1078 to win a bid to ORCs for the first time.
“I don’t think team 1078 understood what they accomplished because it was the first time that our ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams have both gotten bids,” said LeBlanc, a member of the 1077 team. “So it was a really exciting experience. Very emotional, but super exciting.”
LeBlanc said camaraderie and trust amongst the teams led them to perform well all season, especially at competitive tournaments when the season was on the line.
“I was just thinking about all the seniors on our team,” LeBlanc said. “We have three: Gabriel Powell, Ethan Tong, and Johannah Freyenhagen. Our performance stopped being about ourselves and became about doing it for the seniors and the rest of our team.”
While the Hillsdale community was recovering from the power outages, team 1076 placed first at the Wheaton College Regional tournament from Feb. 25-26. Sophomore Abby Davis won an attorney award, and junior Caleb Sampson earned both an attorney and witness award for his performances this past weekend.
Davis credited the program’s success to their hard work and love of the material.
“As a program this year, everyone on all three teams is unusually excited about working on mock trial,” Davis said. “People take their own initiative to go read case law on their own and run their material 18 times, which is part of the reason why we have three bids this year.”
The Opening Round Championship Series allows only two teams from each school to compete at the tournament. Teams 1076 and 1077 are using the next two weeks to prepare, hoping to get a bid to nationals.
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and it’s going to be exhausting, but I know it will be so rewarding, just like it is every time,” LeBlanc said.
