Several of our students were nominated by judges in their rounds for Outstanding Advocate and Outstanding Witness, although none received enough nominations to win an award. Only one student per round can be nominated by each judge for these awards. Congratulations go to these students:
Outstanding Advocate nominations:
- Karina Brisack
- Jacob Phillip
- Michael Eaton
Outstanding Witness nominations:
- Stephen Rosenberger (3)
- Kristen Arias
- Michael Eaton
In their first round, our first year team was matched against a very seasoned team and performed extremely well. That team, Creekview High School, would eventually go on to win 2nd place in this year's State contest. We received one nomination in this round for Outstanding Advocate: Jacob Phillip. The team only lost one ballot by a single point and another ballot by 3 points, so they were very competitive against this experienced team.
In the second round, our team again met a team with a distinguished record. That team, El Paso (America), won the State championship last year and went on to win 5th place at Nationals. They would go on to place 7th overall in the State competition this year. Our team received three nominations in this round for Outstanding Witness: Stephen Rosenberger (2) and Kristen Arias (1). The round was actually a split decision with our team winning one ballot and narrowly losing the other two.
In the first two rounds our team met well prepared, experienced teams and made each opposing team work for their win. In the third round, our team met a less experienced team and did win. In this round we received two nominations for Outstanding Witness: Stephen Rosenberger and Michael Eaton. We also received one nomination for Outstanding Advocate: Karina Brisack.
In the fourth round, our team again met a more experienced team and had a very good round. Again, each ballot was a narrow loss by only 3-5 points. Our team received one nomination for Outstanding Advocate in this round: Michael Eaton. The judge who nominated Michael was also one of the case writers this year. We did not receive any nominations for Outstanding Witness in the round. The best witness from the opposing team was very good, and would go on to win the 2nd place Outstanding Witness award.
Through the mock trial experience all of the students learned valuable lessons in the areas of team development, personal growth and maturity, and now have a greater understanding of our country’s legal system. We are looking forward to growing our Mock Trial program in the future.
-- Elise Eaton Director, Extraordinary Education www.extraed.net
