Morningside College’s Mock Trial Team No. 522 took first place in the Great Midwest Regional Mock Trial Tournament held January 26 - 27, at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. The team will now be one of only two teams in the region to advance to the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) National Championship Tournament to be held April 13-15, at Stetson University Law School in St. Petersburg, Fla. Only the top 50 teams in the nation qualify for the national tournament.
Sammy Wenger, daughter of Lisa and Tony Wenger, is part of the mock trial team. Wenger, a senior at Morningside, also received an award as outstanding witness.
“Participating in this elite championship tournament brings national recognition to the Morningside mock trial program and more importantly, gives our students an opportunity to compete with some of the best students in the nation,” said Dr. Lillian Lopez, associate professor of history and political science at Morningside. Lopez serves as education coach for Morningside’s mock trial teams.
Morningside’s Mock Trial Team No. 522 finished the tournament with a record of seven wins and one loss. Winning rounds were posted against Benedictine University of Illinois and two different teams from the University of Iowa. Morningside split a round against Loras College.
Eighteen mock trial teams from 11 colleges and universities in the Great Midwest Region participated in the tournament. Other schools participating in the tournament included Coe College, Cornell College, Grinnell College, Iowa State University, and St. Ambrose University in Iowa, the University of Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin at Platteville. The tournament consisted of four rounds of competition with students competing as plaintiffs and as defendants. Students played the roles of both attorneys and witnesses in the hypothetical civil rights case “Jeffries v. Polk County Police.”