Students competed against 24 other teams representing some of the most elite Mock Trial programs in the Northeast.
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The Elon University Mock Trial Team finished third among some of the nation’s top mock trial teams this month in the 5th Annual Happy Valley Mock Trial Invitational hosted by Penn State University.
The tournament welcomed 24 teams from 17 of programs including Cornell, Yale, Georgetown, Harvard, American, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan, Penn State and Elon.
Participants argued a fictional lawsuit against a Florida company for the wrongful death of a SCUBA diver who died during an expedition to a shipwreck in the Atlantic.
The Elon team split wins with Yale, 1-1, in the first round. The team won both ballots against Drexel University in the second round both ballots against the University of Michigan in the third round.
Going into the fourth round Elon was tied for first place against Tufts University, a powerhouse in the mock trial community. With United States District Court Judge Kim R. Gibson of the Western District of Pennsylvania presiding over the final round, the teams split wins, 1-1. However, tiebreaker rules awarded second place to Tufts.
Totaling the four rounds, Elon finished 6-2 with a point total of +78.
Elon participants were Andrew Stevenson, Amanda Sterns, Saige Subick, Noah McCarn, Kelsey O’Connell, Tyler Nikola and Rebecca Mutty. In addition to the team award, Noah McCarn received an outstanding witness award for his work on the defense side of the case.
Elon now takes a few weeks off before sending teams to tournaments at American University, Coastal Carolina, and Duke to close out the semester.
– Information provided by Michael Koeltzow L’13