2 Teams Look for Success in Louisville

MMT will compete this weekend at the Kentucky Classic Invitational in Louisville, KY.

This weekend's competition will mark the first time this season that MMT has competed since the program was organized into A, B and developmental teams. Two weeks ago, in Columbus, the program competed for the first time all year and finished 22-9-1, placing three team's in the tournament's top 5. Miami looks to build on that dominant performance this weekend when they send "The A Team", Miami's flagship squad, and The All-American Redirects, one of MMT's two developmental teams, to Louisville.

The "A Team", coached by Dan Haughey and Neal Schuett, looks to be one of the most promising in Miami history.  Collectively, the all senior team has 2 All-American competitors, 28 years of college mock trial experience and a total of 57 individual awards. Still, competitor roles are not yet set in stone and the team will be jockeying students between roles this weekend to determine what works best. They will also be performing without co-captain and All-American witness Claire Meikle.

The competitors aren't worried, though. "If we play to our strengths, if we play Miami Mock Trial, it doesn't matter who's in what role - we're gonna pick up enough ballots to win this tournament," said All-American closer Alex Block.

Laura Tholke and Jaime Glinka, who coach The All-American Redirects, have the challenge of introducing their mostly freshman competitors into the mock circuit without the in-round veteran presence felt in Columbus. There, the program was "split stacked" and program rookies competed alongside veterans. This tournament, the rookies are on their own.

The competition will be the toughest Miami has seen this year. Well-established programs like the University of Cincinnati, Bellarmine and Furman will each be sending two teams to the tournament. So will Rhodes, who appeared in the National Championship round last year. Duke, who won the National Championship in 2012, will be sending a single team.

Co-hosted by Bellarmine University and Eastern Kentucky University, rounds will occur in the Jefferson County District Court. The tournament is a 1-2-1, meaning the first round of competition will be Friday evening, two rounds on Saturday and then the final round on Sunday morning.

More about the Miami teams competing here.

More about the tournament here.