KINGSTON – The Wyoming Seminary Mock Trial team recently concluded a successful mock trial competition season at the 36th Annual Pennsylvania Bar Association Statewide High School Mock Trial Competition, held in the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg.
The Sem team, representing Region 5 in state competition, went undefeated in the tournament, placing third overall. This is the eighth time in 12 years that the Sem Blue Knights have advanced to the state level. The competition featured the top 14 Mock Trial teams in the Commonwealth.
Four members of the Sem team were honored with special awards. Senior Morgan Price, of Bear Creek, and freshman Sophia Kruger, of Shavertown, received Best Witness Awards, while junior and team captain Jillayne Gumbs, of Allentown, and freshman Emily Aikens, of Jenkins Township, received Best Advocate Awards, in recognition of their outstanding individual performances in the tournament.
“With this competition, we turn the page on yet another successful Mock Trial season,” said Adam Carlisle, member of the Sem history faculty and Mock Trial Team teacher-coach. “I could not be more proud of what these eight students accomplished together this year.”
The competition, sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, provides high school students with a firsthand experience of the American judicial system.
Mock trial teams argue a case before a judge and are evaluated based on their presentation, opening and closing arguments, direct and cross examination, poise and articulation, control of facts, and knowledge of Mock Trial rules of law and exceptions. Competitions involve two opposing high school teams who apply real-life statutes and case law to fictitious situations in a simulated trial setting.
Team members are coached by teacher-coaches Adam Carlisle, Dr. Elizabeth Penland and Morgan Howard-Penland and are advised by area attorneys Paul Galante and Zach Watkins.
