So, we did it!
Howard University Mock Trial team won fifth place out of 26 teams in last weekend's American Mock Trial Association East Regional Qualifying Tournament in Baltimore, Md. The hours upon hours of endless working on weekdays, weekends, snow days and holidays finally paid off. This means that our team will move on to the next round of competition, Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS), in Hamilton, Ohio.
In addition to winning the fifth place trophy team members Eddie Holiday and myself, Dilane Mitchell, won outstanding attorney and witness awards, respectively.
Beginning Saturday morning and continuing until Sunday evening, our squad began four rounds of grueling competition. Two teams in each round scramble to impress two judges enough to win the ballads that they are holding. The teams are matched based on their record at the time so each rounds gets progressively harder. By the time we made it fourth round we were absolutely exhausted; we had to make sure we brought our "A" game and did win both ballads in the end.
The East Regional is known to be the hardest regional in the country; every year for the last decade the national champion has come out of the East Region. Schools such as University of Virginia (UVA), University of Maryland (UMD), Georgetown University, George Washington University and Patrick Henry University are all housed in the East Region.
We ended the competition with a record of 6-1-1, meaning we won six ballads, tied one and lost one. We actually felt bad because we took both ballads in the fourth round which knocked the opposing team, Patrick Henry's A squad, out of the top eight so they did not qualify to move forward.
After the closing ceremonies one competitor was heard saying, "... Yeah all the top schools always make it out [of the region] Howard, UVA [University of Virginia], G. W. [George Washington]..." We were actually quite proud to find out we had that kind of reputation.
Attorney Tiana Sousa- Johnson, the director of the Forensics program at Howard, as well as our coach was very proud of her team. We have brought home at least one trophy, one attorney, and one witness award from every competition we have attended this year, three in total. My teammates are excited to move on and have already had meetings about how to be successful in ORCS. We are also aware that this means that we will have to continue to practice almost every day for the next month in order to be prepared for ORCS.
Other schools that placed were UVA, UMD, and Georgetown University. The other seven teams from Baltimore as well as the top eight teams from the regionals in Cincinnati, Ohio and Louiseville, Ky. will join Howard University in competition in Hamilton, Ohio for ORCS. The top six teams from this competition will go on to the National Championship in Memphis, Tenn. on Mar. 20 and 21.
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