The Mock Trial state competition took place on Feb. 15, resulting with the B team and C team placing in the top eight within their region. The two teams will advance to compete at the state finals competition on March 8. Club sponsor Robert Browning said the A team did not place and was surprised with their results, though attempted to compete at finals using a “wild card.” He said there were four wild cards, one for each region, and served to bring back one team to compete at state finals based on the judge’s scoring. However, the A team nearly missed the opportunity, and Browning said he and the team were especially disappointed. Nonetheless, sophomore attorney Anuva Giri said the C team was very excited to compete at finals, and the team’s motivation has spiked as the competition date draws nearer.

She said, “With the state competition in less than a week, we’ve been putting in a lot of time editing and practicing our case material. It was really incredible to find out we’re going to finals, we worked really hard for it and everyone on my team did great, so now we want to get even better. We’re all really excited and determined to do good, and hopefully place at state.”

Browning said club morale has gotten increasingly more competitive with state finals approaching.

He said, “The competition has really, really heated up. [The students] are pretty fired up, and this is one of those times the kids kind of understand what’s going on because they’ve had a couple of trials and they’ve gotten better. They understand the case better now, and we have two weeks before the March 8th competition, and so they’re starting to hone in and it’s very competitive.”