Mock trial ‘appeals’: UC competition, second chance
Attorneys for the Green team sophomores Rishav Dasgupta and Adam Meller and freshman witness Astin Wong practice a cross examination for Wong’s character, “Pat Sweeney.” In the real competition, Wong will be crossed by an attorney from the opposing team, but the team practices together to prepare one another for the possible responses or questions that opponents may have.
Sun. Jan. 10 SHS’s three mock trial teams (Aves, Gold, and Green) are heading to the University of Cincinnati to compete in the school’s College of Law’s eighth annual high school mock trial invitational.
This will be mock trials’ second competition of the season, and the last for SHS until the district competition that will determine whether teams advance to regionals.
Sophomore Natalie Demarks said, “Last time [we competed] was our first time competing in mock trial for most of us, and I think we didn’t really know what to expect.”
Neither of Sycamore’s teams placed at the previous competition (Mockhawk at Miami University). However, members are hopeful for progress this time around.
Junior Emma Traylor said, “I feel like we are more prepared for this competition. We were prepared last time, but now we have more finesse and practice for the both the [student] attorneys and witnesses.”
Teams from 28 schools in the area will compete throughout the day and awards will be announced that day. Each team will compete twice, being matched up by random for the first round and then power paired (based on ranking) for the second.
Since the last competition attorneys have worked specifically on memorization and witnesses on developing characters for their roles.
Traylor said,” Last time was a great learning experience. I think that I, as well as the whole team, will do much better during our competition on Sunday.”
UPDATE: Due to snow, the teams were unable to make it to the competition. Instead, the different teams scirmmaged each other for practice.
