The Elon Mock Trial program will compete January 16-18, 2010 among 40 teams from 19 universities in the 10th Annual Sunset Strip Invitational Tournament hosted by UCLA in Los Angeles, CA. The UCLA Tournament is one of the oldest and most prestigious tournaments in the country. Elon was invited because of their break-through performance last year reaching national competition for the first time. Elon is sending one team representing students from all majors and departments to compete at the tournament.
This will be the fourth tournament of the season for the team. This will be the second time in the 7 year history of Elon Mock Trial that they will be heading west for a tournament. This first time was a trip in 2007 to the University of Arizona where the team placed 5th out of 24 teams.
Among the teams in competition will be UCLA, USC, Stanford, Brown, Columbia, UC Berkeley and Rhodes College.
Elon Mock Trial looks to improve upon their performance during their fall tournaments, which concluded with a 9th place finish at Middle Tennessee State in November. The team has been preparing since the beginning of the August, meeting two or three times a week for more two hours per gathering.
This is the final invitational tournament of the season for Elon Mock Trial. The teams will begin the elimination round of the AMTA season in early February with the Chapel Hill Regional Tournament.
The Elon students that will be competing this weekend at UCLA are:
Kathryn Hopkins ’10, Elon Mock Trial President
Amanda Morrissey ’10, Elon Mock Trial Vice-President
Daniel Harwell ‘10
Kristen DelForge ‘11
Michael McFarland ‘12
Andrew Stevenson ‘13
Allie Weller ‘13
The team is coached and accompanied by William Warihay, a third-year law student at Elon University School of Law. Darris Means of the Elon Academy will also be traveling with the team this weekend.
For more information on Elon Mock Trial, please visit the web site listed to the right of this page.