Mock Trial team places third, moves up 10 places from 2015

The Mock Trial team — including the competitive Black Team and the training-level Gold Team — attended the Ventura County Mock Trial Competition Feb. 22-25. The Black Team placed third overall, moving up 10 places from its 13th place finish in 2015.

In addition, 10 team members won individual awards, including awards for best attorney and witness performances.

“This year’s success was largely due to a strong effort from our seniors, who performed strongly in comparison to prior years,” Mock Trial advisor and social sciences teacher Victor Anderson said.

Each overall team is divided into prosecution and defense. At the competition, each prosecution and defense team competes against the opposing side from another school.

Match-ups are announced immediately before the trials begin.

“It made me jittery to have to sit and wait [for competition],” freshman Wayne Xiao, who portrayed a witness for the Black Team, wrote an in email. “I was pretty calm actually, until I arrived at the courthouse. It was almost painful to wait for the match-ups to be announced.”

Seniors and co-captains Roshni Dugar and Varsha Sarveshwar increased the workload assigned to team members and scheduled several weekend meetings in order to prepare them for competition.

“[The entire team] was held accountable for practice, more than ever before,” Dugar wrote in an email. “We assigned many hours of practice each week in the time preceding competition, which led to some long nights, but also our third place win.”

Other members also credited the camaraderie between team members.

“The [team] dinners helped to create a stronger bond between members and make students feel like they belonged to a family,” sophomore and Gold Team prosecution attorney Anika Krishnan said.

The team’s success, however, was not easy. According to sophomore and Black Team trial attorney Olivia Chang, the performance of other schools — such as Grace Brethren High School, which competed against the Black Team in the semifinals — was impressive.

“[Grace Brethren had] amazing attorneys who objected fiercely, as well as great witnesses,” Change wrote in an email.

Senior and courtroom artist Caitlin Takeda was judged in a competition specifically for courtroom artists.

“I felt pretty nervous going into competition, but there wasn’t as much pressure because I knew I was being judged separately,” Takeda said.

Teams are compared based on the performance of their individual members, who are scored from one to five by scoring attorneys.

All teams attend the first two days of competition; to advance to the third day, teams must place within the top eight teams, and to advance to the fourth day, teams must place within the top four teams. Teams learn if they have placed within the top eight approximately five hours before competition starts.

Overall, sophomore Jacqueline Osborn described competition as a fun experience.

“It was very rewarding,” Osborn said. “I loved watching our team succeed.”