Mock Trial Team poses with trophy.
The Hillsdale College Mock Trial team earned two bids to the National tournament, advancing to the competition for the second year in a row.
On March 10-12, teams 1076 and 1077 competed at the Opening Round Championship Series in Geneva, Illinois. Senior Allison Dillow and freshman Patrick McDonald earned All-National witness and attorney awards for their performances that weekend.
“Everyone on the team really wanted a bid to Nationals last year, especially because we had seniors who had been working towards this goal for the last four years,” Dillow said. “This year was similar, but it didn’t have the same kind of stress because we realized it was something we were capable of.”
Team 1077 received the first of Hillsdale’s two bids, guaranteeing the program’s status as one of the top 50 teams in America for the second year in a row. With a record of 5-1-2, and a combined strength score of 17, team 1077 placed 5th.
“We were ballot blind going into the awards ceremony, meaning we didn’t know how many rounds we won or lost,” junior Justin Lee said. “When they announced that the last two teams had a record of 6-2, I just saw our coach’s face go completely white because we didn’t know what our combined strength score was.”
Placing sixth, and earning the tournament’s final bid to Nationals, team 1076 finished 6-2 with a combined strength score of 14.
“I just wish I had a better way to describe how it felt once we knew we had gotten two bids,” Lee said. “It was just fantastic. It made all of the extensions on papers and midterms that we had gotten feel worth it.”
Before the ORCS, the American Mock Trial Association releases case changes where it edited, added, and removed the information within the packet teams use to write their material. McDonald said the teams had to schedule extra practices and meetings to prepare during the two weeks before the competition.
“In the eight days before the tournament, we had four scrimmages that each incorporated various aspects of the new cases so that we could become familiar with them before the tournament,” McDonald said. “The scrimmages are supposed to take around two hours, but we often have a bit too much fun, so they all lasted about three hours.”
After all the extra practices, plus the midterms and papers due before spring break, McDonald said the team was pretty tired going into the tournament, but hadn’t lost their motivation.
“The team morale is always very, very good, even when we aren’t feeling super great,” McDonald said. “On the drive there, a lot of us were sleeping and catching up on rest, but as soon as we arrived, we were ready to compete.”
Dillow described how impressed she was with the performance of the freshmen on these teams, especially since they had not competed at a tournament of this caliber throughout the season.
“The freshmen really showed up, and I think it’s because they’re so new to this that they don’t have that unhealthy, built-in fear of the bigger tournaments,” Dillow said. “They don’t have a fear of highly ranked competitors; they’re friendly and outgoing with everyone. They were there to have a good time and do their best, and I think that’s what they did.”
