Last week, Fallston’s Mock Trial team competed against McDonogh School in Baltimore County. Fallston’s defense team really hit it out of the park, beating McDonogh 99-96. They competed in the Baltimore Circuit Court, Sammy Evans noting “it was huge, and it was just amazing to be in that atmosphere.”
“Defense attorneys Cole McCumbers and Ella Schmidt worked overtime to hone persuasive opening and closing statements (respectively)—these arguments can make or break overall scores for wins in a case,” Mrs. King, Mock Trial’s advisor says. “At the same time, our witnesses for Defense—Corinne Wood, Anna Newman, and Mark Zaranski—have been given high praise from a judge in Baltimore County, because ‘their convincing testimony’ made the trial dynamic and believable.” Clearly, the combination of each team member putting their all into this trial is what allowed them to secure this win.
But how did these students prep themselves to secure this impressive win? Most of them will tell you: practice. “We have at least one meeting as a group every week where we get to practice, but just practicing on our own as well led to this win,” explains Defense Witness/Prosecution Attorney Anna Newman. “A lot of work goes into a trial both individually and as a group, so fully understanding the material really helped us.”
As for future cases, Mock Trial plans to continue with their current strategies to secure wins. Cole McCumbers, Defense Attorney, attributes their success to utilizing teamwork: “Our team should continue thriving on playing together as one team rather than 6 different roles. High scores during questioning and our witnesses being examined always help, and our witnesses and lawyers blended their ideas together very well to create a strong, consistent case for the defense.”
Though each trial is very heavily teamwork-oriented, Sammy Evans was labeled the MVP by most of her teammates. “The highlight [of the day] for me was seeing Sammy Evans stepping up into her role as a lawyer,” says Cole. “She had never been on the defense side and only had one trial previously, but she killed it.” Sammy even got special recognition from the trial judge for her strong command in cross-examination. “I would love to say thank you to everybody that’s been saying I was a huge part in this one,” Sammy says. “However, I think that my role in this was pretty small. I believe that Ella’s closing was immaculate, and Cole’s opening really pushed us to a great start.”
The Mock Trial team’s season is just beginning and, clearly, off to a great start.
