The Mock Trial team at St. Louis U. High has made it impressively far in this year of turmoil. This past weekend, they competed in the State Tournament for the first time since 2013.

The team began the tournament with two trials, one Friday night against Villa Duchesne and the other Saturday morning against Clayton. While both trials were strong for SLUH, they fell short in their second trial and did not advance to the next round.

“Friday night they did a really good job,” said moderator Anne Marie Lodholz. “Saturday morning they did a really good job as well, but it was a totally different type of trial. When you go to trial, some teams object a lot, some teams don’t object a lot, some teams are just more prepared.”

SLUH won two of the three possible ballots on Friday night but didn’t win any of the three ballots on Saturday morning. Nevertheless, the team felt it presented a strong case. 

“I think we performed about as well as we expected,” said senior and Mock Trial attorney Charlie Albus. “With Mock Trial, there is so much arbitrarily left up to chance because of the jurors and team pairings, but we played two very good teams and performed well.”

The trial against Clayton on Saturday morning lasted for almost four hours, consisting of many objections that led to some arguments between the teams.

“The second team in particular, Clayton, they were bulldogs,” said senior and lead attorney Carter Fortman. “They were objecting to things and they didn’t have great arguments, we had better arguments, but they were just doing it so aggressively it threw us off our game.”

Regardless of the outcomes, one of the greatest benefits of the State Tournament was that the SLUH team was able to gather together for their trials. The actual trials took place on Zoom, but the team was together on campus.

“The high point (of the season) was definitely being able to spend the state championship weekend together at SLUH,” said moderator Timothy Weaks, ’06 of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office. “While we maintained social distancing and wore masks, we were finally able to all come together and compete.”

While the season was severely altered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Mock Trial team maintained togetherness and was able to succeed despite the conditions.

“I personally think the season went great,” said Albus. “I was someone who was really opposed to the idea of a virtual competition, but it ended up being nowhere near as bad as I anticipated. This was obviously Carter, Nathan, and my last year, and we made state for the first time in 8 years, so all things considered it was a successful season.”

One of the main advantages the SLUH team had this season apart from the ability to meet in person was their incredible participation, especially among underclassmen.

“We had a ton of interest from the start, which allowed us to field three full teams in the preliminary rounds,” said Weaks. “We had a talented group of underclassmen and incredible leadership from our seniors.”

The immense participation allowed the team to have two squads prepared for state, so one squad could compete and the other squad could understudy and learn about the case.

“This year’s team was spectacular because we had over two full squads participate for the entire season,” said Lodholz. “And those guys as underclassmen, I have to give it to them.”

Among the underclassmen who participated, freshman Grayson Stevenson competed in state with the team doing openings for the trials.

“Grayson’s a freshman and exhibited incredible skill and assurance while presenting,” said Albus. 

“When I felt most proud was after I finished my opening and everybody said that I did a really nice job on it,” said Stevenson.

Overall, the team is proud of its experience at state and throughout this challenging season, and it looks to the younger members to keep the team strong.

“Because we had such a strong group of underclassmen learning directly from our knowledgeable, hard-working upperclassmen, this is a group that is destined for success in the years to come,” said Weaks.