The Scripps College’s Mock Trial team had its most successful season yet, with numerous individual achievements and a visit to Nationals.
Individual achievements were made at every tournament, including two Outstanding Witness Awards to Lily Foss ’13, two Outstanding Attorney Awards to Peri Tenebaum ’13, and two Outstanding Witness Awards to Rachel Kuenzi ’13. Kuenzi was also the highest scoring witness at the Las Vegas competition.
The team ended Regionals with a record of 5-3, which enabled them to move on to the first round of Nationals in Newport Beach, for the first time since the team’s founding in 2009.
“We were so tense waiting for the results [at Regionals, hosted by Claremont McKenna College],” Foss (above, second from right) says, “when they finally called our name you could probably hear our ecstatic screams all the way over at Harvey Mudd!”
Mock Trial is a competition simulating real trial procedures. Students work as attorneys and witnesses to argue a case against another school’s team based on the case packet sent by the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA). As in court, attorneys deliver opening and closing statements, and direct- and cross-examine witnesses, while witnesses give testimony based on the affidavits given in the packets. The competition is scored by two to three judges, based on the way the sides present their case.
The activity is known for being highly competitive and stressful. “Some people exercise their competitive nature through athletics,” says Foss, team captain and public relations chair. “My sport is Mock Trial.”
Scripps “mockers” find the experience one of the most important of their Scripps careers. It develops public speaking skills, strategic thinking, and teamwork, and creates a close-knit group of friends.
“In fifty years, I bet you’ll see mock trial alumnae in the Motley over Reunion Weekend, meeting up to reminisce,” says Foss. After this highly successful season, the mockers of 2012-2013 will certainly have lots of reminisce about!