CSB/SJU Mock Trial Team Going to National Tournament

Collegeville, Minn. - The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University Mock Trial team took second place at the North Central Regional Qualifying Tournament at Macalester College in St. Paul. The team competed against 18 other teams, and their second place finish qualifies them for the National Championship Tournament at Drake University and Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa the weekend of April 5-7. The team's record for the season includes 18 wins and three losses. Also, Josh Smith-Hanen, SJU sophomore, won one of ten Outstanding Attorney Awards given at the tournament.

Members of the CSB/SJU Mock Trial team include co-captains, junior Nick Hydukovich and sophomore Joshua Guimond; sophomores Juliet Govern, Josh Smith-Hanen and Gina Pustovar; and first-years Megan Bjerke and Michael Hahn. Alternate members are first-years Andrew Jones and Michelle Stone, and sophomore Katie Benson is the timekeeper. The team operates under the Pre-Law Society and political science department at CSB/SJU. Jim Read, professor of political science, coaches the team with the help of Jim Murphy, Phil Kronebusch and Scott Johnson, also members of the political science department. Two attorneys from St. Cloud, Dean Lanz and Olga Zenteno, act as attorney-coaches for the team. The team accepts new members at the beginning of each academic year.

At the regional tournament, the team advanced after tying with Macalester College in the first round and sweeping the rest of the tournament against Hamline, Concordia-Moorhead and St. Thomas by large margins. The top three teams in each regional tournament advance to the National Championship Intercollegiate Mock Trial Tournament. Sixty-four teams from across the nation will be vying for the national championship in April.

Mock Trial competitions are administered by the American Mock Trial Association, and there are more than 350 teams nationwide. Each team receives the same case materials at the beginning of the season. Included in the materials are case law, witness statements and rules of evidence. Each team must prepare both sides of the case (e.g. prosecution and defense in a criminal trial). In each trial, six team members - three attorneys and three witnesses - attempt to portray their respective side of the case. The lawyers give opening statements, conduct direct examinations of their own witnesses and cross examinations of the other team's witnesses and give closing arguments. There are two judges who score the teams on the quality of the presentation of each attorney and witness. The winner of the trial is not determined by the merits of the case (e.g. whether the judges would have convicted the defendant or not), but rather on the quality of the presentation.

The College of Saint Benedict for women and Saint John's University for men are partners in liberal arts education, providing students the opportunity to benefit from the distinctions of not one, but two nationally recognized Catholic, Benedictine, residential undergraduate colleges. Together, the colleges challenge students to live balanced lives of learning, work, leadership and service in a coeducational environment.