SLUH’s Mock Trial team competed in the Missouri High School Mock Trial Competition in St. Charles this past weekend, where they faced off against many of the top teams from all across the state in a judicial jostle.

Mock Trial is an activity organized through the Bar Association of St. Louis where students take on the role of someone participating in a trial, from witnesses to attorneys. Missouri has an incredibly strong set of high school programs, regularly placing in the national top 10. As a result, SLUH certainly had its work cut out.

The assigned case this year revolved around a wrongful termination case, in which a talent agent was defending his client from a rogue reporter. The encounter left the reporter with a concussion and severed retina, and the talent agency fired the agent, which the agent responded to with a lawsuit. 

Normally the club would practice once a week, and then as the case was released they would increase to twice a week schedule. The team creates witness testimonies, questions, and has attorneys examine or cross examine witnesses, which later turn into full scrimmages. 

“In January, you complete one side of the case. We have two squads, and they both compete. One of our squads will run the defense of the case, one of our squads will run the prosecution of the case, and they flip the next month in February,” said club moderator Anne Marie Lodholz. 

Depending on the number of points the team amasses, they’re ranked in the state. The top 32 schools move on to Regionals, where Tuesday night the team runs one end of the case, and Thursday night the team runs the other end. Then once the teams are whittled down to 16, they move on to State Finals which was slightly different this year as 18 teams went to State instead of the regular 16.

State competitions began Friday night, March 25 at the St. Charles County Courthouse, and a second round was hosted Saturday morning. In the first round, SLUH went up against Rockhurst on Friday night, and Excelsior Springs on Saturday morning. 

“I think that we were able to show a lot of independence from scripts. Normally you'll have a script that you'll develop and will practice with your witness,” said senior Tag Arens. “Now and then you'll read off of that script when you're doing your direct or your cross interrogation, but for the most part we were doing it mostly off of script, which was something that I think distinguished us from the other teams during that match.”

By this point the teams still competing had been carved down to eight; the semifinals. Ultimately, SLUH’s final match was hosted Saturday afternoon, in which SLUH went up against Clayton, a match SLUH ultimately lost as Clayton went on to take second place in the finals.

“We faced off against a spectacular team. Specifically their movie star witness, who when approaching the stand questioned whether the seat was genuine leather so you know there’s a lot of character and effort going into these witnesses,” said Arens. “So that was something that was really awesome to see on both sides, but we lost that trial, sadly. It was definitely a great run, especially since it was my first year, so I was very excited about it.”

“The teams at SLUH always do really well. They always know their objections, they know the nuts and bolts of their character, they think on their feet really quickly,” said Lodholz. “What was really impressive to see was how this team grew over the arc of the competition. They were setting up their own practice schedules, practicing outside of core class. They were rewriting scripts, looking for new details. And they were still having fun with their character development. They really came together as a team, they really gelled as a team. I’m so happy for them that they had the opportunity to go deep into State.”