Mock Trial Team Places Second at State Competition
Mia Parker delivers her closing statement.
March 4, 2019
The MSMS Mock Trial team competed in the state tournament this past weekend in Jackson, where they placed second behind Sacred Heart High School.
The tournament involved two days of trials, the first two rounds on Friday and the final two on Saturday. Because the team was named as one of the top two teams, they competed in a fifth round to determine the winner.
In the first round of competition, the team defeated Callaway High School. They then went on to beat Oxford High Team B in the second round of the competition.
On the second day of competition, the team kept its winning streak alive facing off against Brandon High School Team 1. The team lost its perfect streak in the fourth round of competition where they faced off against Sacred Heart Team 1.
“We lost the judges’ vote 2-1,” said team member Kelsey Hollingsworth.
After the fourth round of competition, the judges announced the top two teams who would compete against each other for first place. The top teams were Sacred Heart Team 1 and MSMS, who competed for a chance to advance to nationals in May.
After a final round of competition, MSMS came in second. For the team, and everyone else, this was an unexpected outcome.
“Based on our performance in the final round, I think everyone can agree that we won. That last round was the best we’d ever dreamed of performing the case; everyone rose up to the occasion. But the facts were just so heavily weighted for the defense’s case that it was next to impossible for us to win as the plaintiff. Scott told us from the beginning that it’d come down to rock, paper, scissors–and that’s what happened,” Victoria Gong said.
Other members of the team echoed Gong.
“I am so proud of my team, and I truly believe that had the stars aligned and Mia won the rock, paper, scissors competition, we would have brought home first place,” stated Hollingsworth.
Everyone on the team seemed to be thankful for the time they were able to spend this year at Mock Trial.
“There were many times during the entire year where I kept asking if I wanted to do this. Once we got to state I was super excited. Through Mock Trial, I found my love for public speaking,” Peter Nguyen said.
“Participating in Mock Trial these past two years has been a lot of work. From starting with a meeting in a study room of the library literally begging our coach Scott Colom to even help us this year (he vowed to retire after last year to spend more time with his family), to memorizing of ridiculous amounts of information like rule numbers and cross-examination questions, to the late night practices several times a week, it has been exhausting. Last year we placed seventh at state, just one place from getting a gavel, and one of our stipulations for getting Scott back was to promise to work our hardest to get a gavel and even make it to the final round, which we did,” Hollingsworth said.
Gong added her final words to describe the season and final competition of the year.
“We may have been number two in the books, but we were number one in their Sacred Heart.”
Heath Stevens • Mar 5, 2019 at 9:03 am
“There’s no crying in baseball.”