MHS Mock Trial team in first appearance at state competition

Thursday, December 6, 2018
The McCook High School Mock Trial team poses for a formal picture during the 2018 Nebraska State Mock Trial banquet in Omaha. They include, front from left, Baylor Winters, Hayden Johnson, Emily Kjendal, and Lexi Hauxwell, back, Nebraska Supreme Court Judge Hon. Jeffery Funke, Gwyneth Davis, Olivia Koetter, Tucker Gillespie, Aiden Barger, Ethan Graff, legal coach Emily Wood, MHS Coach Jon Graff, Kora Kelsin, Rozelynn Latta, Nebraska State Bar Foundation President Steven Guenzel, and Chesney Latta.
Courtesy photo

OMAHA, Neb. — McCook High School’s first trip to the Nebraska State Mock Trial competition didn’t end as the MHS team had hoped — a state title — but it was still a tremendous learning experience for the young team.

With real-world applications, the McCook Mock Trial “Red” Team made its inaugural appearance at the Nebraska State Mock Trial competition earlier this week in Omaha. Held at the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse, 10 teams from across the state competed in three mock trials over two days of competition.

After tabulating scores for wins and losses and draws in those trials, McCook received an honorable mention. Creighton Prep in Omaha and Gering finished as the top two, forcing an “east vs. west” final trial with Creighton Prep taking the state title Tuesday afternooon.

(Officially, 12 teams qualified for the state competition but Valentine and Lexington were not able to make the trip due to the winter weather.)

Jon Graff, mock trial coach and MHS 11th grade teacher, said he was very proud of how well the MHS team performed at the state mock trial competition.

“We were understandably nervous going into our first trial,” Graff said, “but the kids fell back on their training and shined.”

He added, “We executed better each trial and ended our state trip with a hard-fought battle against the eventual state champion Creighton Prep.”

Graff noted that the two performance judges split their votes and the final decision fell to the judge, who sided for Creighton Prep.

Mock Trial competitions put teams of 6 students — 3 lawyers and 3 witnesses — against each other to argue a case in front of a judge and a two-person jury made up of volunteer lawyers. One team will argue for the defense, with the other arguing for the prosecution. With a case developed by members of the Nebraska State Bar Foundation, the same case is used through the season by all the teams with this year’s case focusing on drug trafficking and witness tampering charges against the fictional character, “Ricki Glossner.”

During the 2018 season, Nebraska’s mock trial program had 60 schools represented with 123 teams registered. All teams compete against all other schools, regardless of school enrollment or class size.

McCook Red qualified for the state tournament by winning the District 3 tournament over Dundy County in November. The lawyers for McCook Red are Tucker Gillespie (9), Emily Kjendal (10), and Aiden Barger (11). Their witnesses are Hayden Johnson (10), Lexi Hauxwell (10), and Baylor Winters (10).

MHS had enough students involved in Mock Trial to form a second team, McCook White, which also advanced out of the reason season and qualified for the district tournament for the first time. The lawyers for McCook White were Ethan Graff (9), Hannah Goltl (11), and Kathleen Bair (9). Their witnesses were Chesney Latta (9), Gwyneth Davis (9) and Aiden Barger (9). Additional members of the MHS teams, performing various duties from timing to being witnesses or lawyers, were Rozelynn Latta (10), Olivia Koetter (10), Kora Kelsin (10), and Faith Raburn (9).

Graff was assisted throughout the season by MHS Librarian Kristen Blume. The MHS team also benefitted tremendously this year from legal coach and local attorney, Emily Wood.

With no seniors on either team, Graff is hopeful that the McCook team will return to Omaha next year.

“The kids had a great experience in Omaha and they are very excited about the possibility of returning in 2019,” he said.

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