When most students left campus for the holidays on Nov. 18, Hamilton’s Mock Trial teams suited up for a tournament at Cornell University (Nov 19-20). Among the competition were teams from some of the best mock trial programs in the Northeast region including the Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University.
Hamilton’s Mock Trial program brought two teams to this tournament, and further confirmed that having two teams is extremely beneficial in many ways, and hasn’t diminished the overall competitiveness of Hamilton’s program. In fact, the fall season has shown that, despite the extra workload on each teammate, having two teams makes Hamilton more competitive.
Over the course of eight trials, Hamilton’s two teams faced programs from several other schools including Penn State, the University of Michigan, Rutgers, Brown University, Fordham University (which placed fourth overall), and University of Maryland, College Park (which placed fifth overall). In the end, Hamilton’s two teams placed 13th and 14th out of 22 teams, edging out several Ivy League and otherwise competitive schools.
In addition, two members of Hamilton’s program received individual awards. Ryan Bloom ’18 received an outstanding award for her role as a plaintiff attorney. Samantha Gordon ’19 received an outstanding witness award for her role as the plaintiff, a 51-year-old writer who claims she was fired because of her age.
This tournament marks the end of Hamilton’s fall invitational season. Over the next month, the program will transition back into one 10-person team for the spring elimination rounds. To do this, the program will participate in one more invitational tournament, at Georgetown University, before the elimination rounds begin on January 3.
Other competing members include: Co-Captains Andrew Fischer ’17 and Caroline Reppert ’17, Silvia Radulescu ’17, Samantha Weckenman ’17, Jonathan Stanhope ’18, Rachel Dawson ’19, Ram Franqui ’19, Brad Marston ’19, Patrick McConnell ’19, Michael Wang ’19, Ian Hohm ’20, Isabelle Mosbarger ’20, and Bryce Murdick ’20.
