As Northwestern’s Mock Trial team prepares for its second regional competition this weekend, courtroom drama has followed them.
Mock Trial, which is made up of more than 30 students in four teams, qualified two teams to the national competition after placing first and sixth in last weekend’s regional in Davenport, Iowa. The two other teams will compete in Milwaukee this weekend.NU’s first-place win in Davenport sparked accusations the team had cheated. Members of the national Mock Trial community posted in an online forum in which they suggested foul play.
While other universities rank their Mock Trial teams with an A, B, C and D hierarchy, NU does not. Universities at the competition were supposed to send their two weakest teams, C and D, to the first regional section. When other teams’ members saw last year’s nationally ranked NU Mock Trial attorney participating last weekend, they became suspicious that NU sent its A and B teams instead.
The issue went to the national Mock Trial board, where it was dismissed because a former
NU coach explained the University does not rank its teams.
Fenit Nirappil, the team’s treasurer and captain of last week’s first-place team, said he does not want to start ranking teams in light of the cheating scandal.
“Ultimately we think the best way to respond to the accusations is to send two teams to the next tournament and have them perform really well to show the people who accused us that all of our teams are among the best of the country,” the Medill sophomore said.
To prepare for the two-day tournament, the two remaining teams have been practicing every night under the direction of a five-person coaching staff. Together they review judges’ feedback from previous tournaments and peer coach one another.
This year Mock Trial teams are working on the fictional murder trial of Hollywood producer Jacob Bennett. During tournaments, the teams alternate between playing prosecution and defense, team member Vicki Sun said.
“Everybody is pretending to be lawyers,” the Weinberg sophomore said. “But it’s just about how confident you are when you deliver. If you can’t deliver well, you’re not going to win over the jury.”
This year’s national competition will be held in Memphis, Tenn., in April.
After placing first and second in silver nationals and then 12th and 14th in gold nationals last year under a six-person coaching staff, this year’s team is working with four new coaches and one returning coach, Nirappil said.
The fall season was not as successful as last year’s, but winter performances have seen an improvement, he said.
“We have been able to self-train ourselves,” Nirappil said. “We’re able to be successful even without as much coaching as last year.”
As the team enters the second regional competition, he said he hopes the team will place in the top 10 of gold nationals, something NU hasn’t accomplished in a long time.Jennifer Berman, the team’s president, said NU’s strategy is to put effort into every trial.
“Treat every single round as the most important round we’ll have this weekend,” the Weinberg senior said. “A lot of other teams fell prey to thinking the earlier rounds were not really important.”
