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The mock trial team received a discretionary bid this week to compete in the 18th National Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament March 15-17 at Hamline University and the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. With the four best teams from the event advancing to the April 5-7 final tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, this puts Lafayette’s mock trial team in the running for the national championship for the first time in its history.
“It’s almost unprecedented for a school with a team only in existence for three years to make it to one of these national tournaments,” says Bruce Allen Murphy, Kirby Professor of Civil Rights and director of mock trial. “This will give us a chance to go and experience this level of competition and know what we have to do in the future to be able to compete at the highest levels.”
The students traveling to St. Paul will be Rachael Blackman ’04, a neuroscience major from Warwick, R.I.; Megan Cottrell ’03, a government and law major from Doylestown, Pa.; Seanna Dyer ’03, a government and law major from Portland, Maine; Robert Fallone ’04 of Bridgewater, N.J.; John Landon ’05 of Shrewsbury, N.J.; Kimberly Posocco ’03, a history major from Scranton, Pa.; Steven Schrum ’05 of Flanders, N.J.; William Simmons ’04, an English major from Trenton, N.J.; and Adrienne Stark ’04, an economics and business major from Oxford, N.J.
A second team of students will compete April 12-14 at the American Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg, Fla.: Dyan Argento ’05 of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Jennifer Carton ’04, a government and law major from Interlaken, N.J.; Jonathan Glick ’05 of Hamden, Conn.; Natalie Kamphaus ’05 of Athens, Ga.; Andrew McCarthy ’05 of Marysville, Ohio; Erin Reynolds ’03, a French major from Larchmont, N.Y.; Sarah Rosenzweig ’03, a government and law major from Columbia, S.C.; Sarah Stocker ’03, a government and law major from Harrison, N.Y.; and Benton Wilmoth ’05 of Marysville, Ohio.
To qualify for the two tournaments, Lafayette’s teams entered a tough regional event at Penn State University’s Altoona campus Feb. 15-17, topping the records of schools such as Princeton University, Carnegie-Mellon, Swarthmore College, Cornell University, Dickinson College, St. Vincent College, and Penn State-Altoona. Posocco and Argento received individual awards as Outstanding Witnesses.
The teams will be accompanied by Murphy and coach Carol Wright, an attorney, adjunct professor of government and law at Lafayette, and Lafayette’s pre-law adviser.
“It was really exciting to have both teams qualify,” says Carton. “It was rewarding because we’ve put a lot of hard work into it and it paid off.”
“I was extremely happy with the performance,” adds Stocker. “We had practiced a lot before we went to the tournament, but I was still very impressed. We really rose to the occasion. We competed against some really good schools like UPenn, St. Vincent’s, and Swarthmore, and I feel we played up to them.”
The foundation of the team’s success has been the leadership of both students and faculty.
Says Argento, “There’s been very good leadership, both on the part of the upperclassmen who started the program, and Bruce Murphy and Carol Wright, to make sure that we practice regularly and that everything is put together and polished. Not only is this an academic activity, it’s almost like a performance too. A lot of things need to be refined.”
Carton says she also finds Murphy and Wright to be tremendous assets to the team.
“They are so supportive and always there to help us. You couldn’t ask for better coaches.”
Stocker sees a significant difference between Lafayette’s mock trial team and the many without faculty coaches. “What I like most is getting to work with Bruce Murphy and Carol Wright,” she says. “Because Lafayette is a small school, we get such close interaction with facultyI like having really great coaches who not only guide us, but coach us and are our own personal cheerleaders.”
The students also appreciate the camaraderie and teamwork of the mock trial team.
“Of all the teams we saw this past weekend, I think ours was the most cohesive as a group because we seemed to have the most fun,” says Argento, a member of the Kirby Government and Law Society. “That’s one thing I like about mock trial – everyone works together and we get along well as a team.”
Although mock trial involves much hard work that does not translate into academic credit, the experience is very rewarding, says Carton, who also finds time to participate in intramural sports and the Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and tennis club teams, as well as the Kirby Government and Law Society and the Newman Association.
“It’s a great group of people,” she says. “It’s a lot of fun and you learn a lot about the legal system while you’re doing it. I really enjoy being part of it and I’m very excited about going to Florida.”
“That’s going to be so awesome,” adds Argento. “It will be a lot of fun.”
The practices and competitions help students improve public speaking skills and other abilities, says Stocker, who also is an assistant to the anthropology and sociology department and a member of Pi Phi sorority. “It teaches you to develop and defend an argument, and to think on your feet. It also teaches you how to act professionally in a professional environment like the courtroom — courtroom decorum.”
Lafayette’s two groups faced trials in Altoona against teams from the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and St. Vincent’s College twice each, and a team from Dickinson College and Penn State-Altoona, once each. Each Lafayette team won five of eight ballots from the judges of these rounds, placing sixth and seventh in the overall competition.
“I am exceedingly proud of our students’ performance in competition against much more experienced teams,” says Wright. “They are exceptional students who have created an exceptional team. It is a real pleasure to work with this team. They are bright and talented individuals who worked hard, and it showed.”
The competition consisted of four rounds of trials against teams from other schools in the mythical murder case of State of Midlands vs. Ashley Thornhill. Students took the roles of attorneys and witnesses, with the choice of which witnesses to call being an important part of the case strategy. During the tournament, teams played the roles of either the prosecution or the defense, playing each side twice. Teams were scored by two judges in each round on the quality of their presentation, legal knowledge, and ability to adapt to the opposing case and to perform under pressure.
At previous competitions, teams of nine members could compete, but only eight on each team were permitted to participate in the Altoona trials. Rosenzweig and Cottrell volunteered to serve as team timekeepers in order to give younger students a chance to gain experience.
“This example of leadership and team spirit by Sarah and Meg, even to the detriment of their own personal goals, helped Lafayette’s young team to achieve the overall success that it did,” says Murphy. “This is a very special group of students who are wonderful representatives of our school.”
The recognition that mock trial teams in national competition bring to schools is considered so important that in some cases, cities have named streets in honor of their teams, adds Murphy. Students successful in mock trial learn essential skills leading to success in a variety of fields and are in a strong position for law school admission or job placement.
In addition to Posocco, Dyer, Stocker, Rosenzweig, and Cottrell, founding members of Lafayette’s mock trial team in fall 1999 included current juniors Brian Heyesey, Cherish O’Donnell, and Robin Yudkovitz. The students worked with the team during the past fall semester, but were unable to compete because they are studying abroad this spring.