The junior and senior mock trial teams both went 2-0 at a regional competition held at St. Ambrose University, where the top six teams advanced to state. The junior and senior City High teams finished in the top six.
Coach Schumann has begun making plans for the state tournament. The teams will leave at noon on Monday and the first round will begin at 4:00 p.m.. Both teams will then compete twice the following day.
“They don’t learn whether they win or lose those rounds until the results are announced. If they make the final four they’ve won each of their first three rounds [and] compete in the semifinals. If they win the semifinal round, they [get to] compete in the final[s], which [are] held in the state Supreme Court chamber,” Jason Schumann, a mock trial coach and history teacher, said.
The team that wins the state competition moves on to the national competition hosted this year in Des Moines. If a team makes the national tournament, they must prepare a different case made specifically for the national competition.
“The national tournament is being held in Des Moines, so if there is an odd number of teams that are registered for the national tournament, the state that hosts the tournament gets to bring two teams,” Schumann said. “This would allow the top two qualifiers from the state of Iowa to go.”
The sophomore team that didn’t qualify for State will continue practicing in preparation for next year.
“I’m really excited to see how we get better as a team and how we handle cases better,” Scarlett Carino-Merek ‘28 said. “I think that it’ll be really cool to see how we all grow as witnesses and as attorneys and maybe try out some different roles in the practice season of the fall. Overall, I’m just really excited to see the growth and the change that everyone will make.”
Carino-Merek said it didn’t go as they had hoped, but was proud of how they competed.
“I think that our prosecution case is really strong in the first round and I think that our defense case was very good, but we got placed against an older team with more experience,” Carino-Merek said.
