On Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, State High’s Mock Trial team competed at the 10th Annual Blue and White Courtroom Classic Tournament. The competition took place in various buildings at the PSU HUB-Freeman Auditorium, Willard Building and the Business Building, all on the Penn State University Campus.
Many mock trial members thought that this tournament was special. Jen Rand, State High’s mock trial team advisor, shared her experience. “The Blue and White Courtroom Classic is very well run. It’s an exciting opportunity for students to get practice in mock trial and to get feedback from excellent judges. It’s run by a student who is one of our former mock trial members from State High. So it’s wonderful to get to see her and see all the other students at Penn State who are running the program,” Rand said.
Senior Vincent Lafrazza-Schwartz, the team captain, also appreciated the judges. “I really liked how it was judged by college students that Dumont trial at the collegiate level. They have a lot of trial specific advice that they can give and it’s also cool to interact with people close to your age, you know, in college doing that kind of thing,” Lafrazza-Schwartz said.
All of the teams, including State High, competed in four rounds. During State High’s first round, they tied North Pocono A team with a score of 1-1. State High won its second round against Cranberry Area High School A team with a score of 2-0. The third round was against Conestoga Valley A team and State High won 2-0. The final round against the North Pocono B team was a split decision, with State High winning 1.5-0.5. Overall, State High finished in 3rd place out of 13 teams.
Rand was satisfied with the team’s performance. “They did an especially good job of lodging objections and they were overall a very competitive team,” Rand said. “Even though I think they do a good job of identifying places where objections can be lodged, they can still do a better job of knowing how to respond when they’re making their arguments using the specific rules of evidence.”
Individual awards were also given in this tournament, with State High receiving two of them. Violet Welsh won an award for the best witness, and LaFrazza-Schwartz won an award for best attorney.
State High’s overall experience at this year’s Blue and White Courtroom tournament was positive. Rand applauded the efforts of the students.
“I only got a chance to see the students compete on Sunday and it was just wonderful to get to see them bring their best and continue to hone their cases as they prepare for all their future competitions this year,” Rand said.
“It was a lot of fun. We got to do a lot of practice for our mock trial competitions. The tournament itself wasn’t really part of our main competition. It was more like practice…We got to run our case on both sides, lots of good practice, lots of good experience seeing other cases,” Lafrazza-Schwartz said.
Mock Trial students are now preparing for one more district trial and on Feb. 18 in Bellefonte. They also have the opportunity to compete at Williamsport’s regional trial on March 4, and a state competition at the end of March.
