Congratulations to Trinity mock trial students Jena A. and Katelyn C. for their amazing showing at the National Association of Moot Court National Tournament! Trinity has never competed in moot court before and is now ranked fifth in the nation!
Moot court is similar to an expanded version of the pretrial portion of mock trial. Competitors argue constitutional issues as a two-person team before a panel of judges—very similar to an argument before the US Supreme Court.
Under the coaching of Trinity alums Jeremy Judd and Audrey Shepard, Jena and Katelyn competed at a preliminary tournament at UCSB in April and qualified to move on to the national tournament via Zoom. This was already an impressive achievement, given that it was Jena and Katelyn’s first moot court appearance, and that Katelyn was a 9th grader up against many experienced seniors!
After the four preliminary rounds at nationals they were in first place out of 35 teams—the ONLY team out of 35 to complete the preliminary rounds with a perfect undefeated record: 8-0. They lost a very close quarterfinal round (five judges’ ballots were split 3-2 against them, and one of the ballots they lost was by only 1 point—95-94). The tournament director reached out personally to their coach, Jeremy, and said after watching and judging their semifinal round, it was “the best (and closest) round I saw this season.” Jena was awarded third place overall individual orator award.
Congratulations, Jena and Katelyn, for such an incredible result! We commend your hard work and dedication.
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