MMT's Spring Recap
By Katie Hunt, Class of 2021, and Catherine Lammersen, Class of 2022
Although cut short by the COVID-19 outbreak, Miami Mock Trial was gearing up to have a fantastic spring season. All three teams earned bids to ORCS, one team secured a bid to the National Championship Tournament, and we were ready to make our 27th consecutive NCT appearance. And while we may not have finished the spring season the way we’d hoped, there’s still part of a spring season and successes to share.
Mockhawks didn’t fly too far south for the winter because Miami’s competitors’ spring season began in January a week before classes started to prepare for the first tournaments of the spring season. Miami’s A team was slated to compete at UChicago’s Great Chicago Fire Invitational, while Miami’s B and C teams traveled to Bloomington, Indiana for IU’s 8th Annual Hoosier Hoedown.
Indiana University’s Hoosier Hoedown: Not a Total Hosedown
The B Team at IU’s Hoosier Hoedown.
While preparing for the Hoosier Hoedown, the B-team suffered some roster shakeups (this will be a recurring theme for the semester). Two first-year competitors from the C-Team joined the ranks of 1002: junior Dan Wozniak playing a frat-boy hiker who was “pretty sure” he saw Parker Page come across that bridge alive; and freshman Macy Armagost delivering a fiery closing hoping to lock up Jordan Ryder forever. Once in Bloomington, Team 1002 challenged and was put to the test by Florida State University, a team most of these competitors had never seen before but Sandlin remembered fondly as the National Champion from his freshman season. Seeking a challenge and having not met a team south of the Mason-Dixon Line in any recent memory, Miami B shot their shot at Florida State University, National Champions from 2013. The Seminoles reminded the B-Team what top-level competition looked like and took both. But the B-Team rebounded, taking three consecutive sweeps and six ballots for the remainder of the tournament from teams from Notre Dame, Case Western, and the host, Indiana University. The B-Team stumbled at points, but their mistakes were redeemable.
On 1003, after Wozniak’s and Armagost’s promotions, there were some positions to fill. Thankfully, we had the reserves. Sarah Quinlivan took over Armagost’s attorney role, and Team 1003was ready for Bloomington. The C-Team took the appropriate opportunity to knock the rust off the pipes in Bloomington, suffering from mistakes and dropping ballots not too surprisingly after more than two months off of the mock circuit. But the C-Team also took the time to realize that it was the spring semester now--and their next tournament would be Regionals where the stakes were much higher. The C-Team knew IU was not their best showing, and buckled down to make sure Regionals would be. As a preview of their Regionals performance, Miami C swept Vanderbilt B in the third round.
When the dust settled, Miami B finished 3rd overall with a 6-2 record. Miami C did not place with a 3-5 record but used their experience to fuel the fire to perform well at Regionals. Junior Taylor Persley and freshman Vinny Kurup earned individual awards for the C-Team and Catherine Lammersen earned an outstanding attorney award for the B-Team.
U-Chicago Great Chicago Fire: Burn It All Down
While Miami’s B and C teams were competing in Indy, Miami A was off to Chicago, competing in the city that was slated to hold the 2020 National Championship. The A-Team also had a roster shakeup before the spring semester got into full swing. First-year competitor and freshman Garrett Creedon joined the ranks of 1001 as a detective who definitely didn’t whiff this investigation. Additionally, Katie Hunt swapped in her “I swear to tell the truth” witness role for an “isn’t it true” attorney role for the first time in her career. With these significant roster changes, the A-Team’s Chicagoland goals were to get experience, boost morale before Regionals, and test out Miami’s style in Chicago.
To say the A-Team had a rough go in Chicago would be an understatement. If you can google a tab summary you know the A-Team struggled against top-level competition--Chicago, Northwood, Yale--while the world burned around them. But the outcome was more important than the result: much like the C-Team, the A-Team felt invigorated to have a significant showing at Regionals and took the time to respark the chemistry on the team that had gone stagnant over the long winter break.
When the flames finished licking at their feet, the A-Team finished 2-6 and did not place. Katie Hunt, that first-time attorney, left with an attorney award. The A-Team knew they would need to buckle down to prepare for Regionals in just a couple weeks.
The A and B teams after their wins in Indianapolis.
Indy Regionals: Right as Rain
Miami A had a stellar record at regionals with 8 wins and 0 losses, securing the very first bid at the tournament to the Geneva ORCS and a Regional Championship. They ended with a CS of 17.5 and a PD of +177. In Indianapolis, they faced some schools they had never seen before, including Quincy University and Harris Stowe State. They also faced Notre Dame, coached by MMT alum Henry Leaman. Miami A finished the awards ceremony with the first bid to ORCS, and competitors Kayla Groneck and Maxwell Rossi both earned All-Regional Attorney Awards.
Miami B squeaked out half a ballot more at Regionals than they did in Bloomington and secured Miami’s second bid at the Indianapolis Regionals with a record of 6-1-1 and multiple individual awards. Junior Zion Miller’s perfect 20 ranks as an opening defense attorney earned him an All-Regionals Attorney Award, and AbbyGrace Catron’s stellar portrayal of defendant Jordan Ryder - the highest ranking witness at the tournament - earned her an All-Regionals Witness Award.
The C team after their 8-0 win at the Dayton Regional.
Dayton Regionals: Do it for The Legacy
With two bids to ORCS under their belt, the C-Team didn’t need to win to secure the second bid to ORCS, but win they did. The C-Team stuck to the promise they made themselves after the Hoosier Hoedown: do better. In the weeks leading up to Regionals, the C-Team worked harder than ever before because their reputation was on the line. They knew that, at Miami, all of the teams should earn bids--not just the teams competing at ORCS.
Thankfully, they succeeded. This particularly young team made up of mostly freshmen took second place with a perfect 8-0 record. Freshman Vinny Kurup took home two awards from Regionals--as an attorney and a witness--making Miami C’s accomplishments even more impressive.
Geneva: Shooting for Better Than Seventh
We hate ORCS. It is stressful, high-pressure, and features many teams that could qualify to the NCT but don’t for one reason or another. The goal is always to not be one of those teams. Always shoot for better than seventh.
Fresh off a Regional Championship, Miami A was ready for a difficult ORCS. Historically, Geneva has not been kind to Miami, especially Miami A teams. This team came together to ensure a bid would be earned to the 2020 National Championship for the 27th year in a row. With a few role shakeups and one roster change with second-year competitor Taylor Persley added to Miami’s A-team, the team traveled back to Illinois. Competing for the very first weekend of the new ORCS-model, Miami was facing quite a few uncertainties.
Undefeated heading into the third round, they were then matched with Northwood, also undefeated, as well as a long-time friend of the program. Both teams joked with one another before the round they would each happily take a split and call it even. That is exactly what happened: +1, -1 for each school. As DeLois Leapheart, Northwood’s Director, walked into the tab room, she met Neal Schuett tentatively. “Plus one, minus one, just like we said.” Leapheart and Schuett had to hug it out. The ballots showed the teams were tied going into closing arguments. Though the coaches were biting their nails and scribbling in their infamous notebooks for the full three hours, the round was excellent for both teams. Miami A knew they would need to sweep their final round to ensure a “better than seventh” finish.
The Monday before ORCS the B-team needed a roster change again (like any good theme, we repeated it at the beginning and the end). Fresh from the C-Team and riding high from their undefeated finish at Regionals, Miami B added sophomore attorney Allie Clements and freshman Jamie Coughlin. The two were selected to bring their stellar direct and portrayal of Detective Jamie Chesney from Regionals; Clements directed Coughlin as Chesney. Miami B also chose to call the newest available witness, Ames Aldrich, a hostile former prison inmate who testified in exchange for a plea deal. At ORCS, the B-team fought hard. They knew that their Legacy was on the line. Happily, the newest members of this relatively young B-Team performed well. Led by a core of second-year competitors, the B-Team charged through some of their toughest matchups of the weekend.
At the end of the tournament, the A- and B-Teams’ efforts were just enough to continue the streak but not without a nail-biting awards ceremony. The A-Team’s competition was announced and, doing some quick math, everyone knew the A-Team was 5-3. Usually not enough to earn a bid, the A-Team won a tiebreaker to qualify out at 5-3. The B-Team narrowly missed a bid to the NCT.
Miami also took home a slew of individual awards. AbbyGrace Catron took home an award for her Aldrich--earning gasps from the audience when announced and getting Catron one step closer to an official AMTA hat trick. Catherine Lammersen earned an award for her portrayal of defense expert and forensic pathologist Dr. Liz Lopez. On the A-Team, Max Rossi earned an All-ORCS attorney award.
Geneva has never been kind to Miami, and this year was no exception. Thankfully, the streak and Legacy are alive and well. Though the spring season may be over (unless AMTA launches Trial by Zoom), it sure looked promising.
The A-Team after earning a bid to the NCT at ORCS.
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