Mock trial team ranks in top five

For the Cold War-era United States, it was the Soviet Union. For the Boston Red Sox, it’s the… For the Cold War-era United States, it was the Soviet Union. For the Boston Red Sox, it’s the New York Yankees. For Pitt’s Mock Trial Team, 610, it was clear who the “evil empire” was: the University of Virginia. And Pitt defeated them in their first round of the Mock Trial National Championship Tournament, also known as the Gold tournament.

The team then went on to secure third place in their division and fifth overall.

“This year our greatest memory was our first round at the Gold tournament,” said Patrick Moroney, Mock Trial tournament director. “We got stuck against the ‘evil empire.’ We crushed them. It felt so good.”

Defending champion UVA entered the contest against Pitt undefeated.

The rumor is that UVA’s mock trial team practices nine hours a day during spring break, Moroney said.

The road to the championship was a long one, several members said, but well worth the time.

Mock Trial vice president Peter Caravello said he was thrilled with his team’s improvement. “It was fun to go from being a team that wasn’t very good to being a team that was not only at the Gold tournament, but had people afraid of us being there,” he said.

Team members received the case they worked on in August. This year, the challenge was to argue the punishment for a mentally disabled person who pleaded guilty to stabbing a social worker with an HIV-infected needle while the worker was trying to take her child into state custody.

Just after Labor Day, the team began practicing three to four days a week, focusing largely on case theory and presentation.

Mock Trial president Keaton Carr stressed the importance of the early stages of preparation. “You need a coherent case theory, because from that stems all the points you’re trying to make in trial,” he said.

Practice began to pay off in the fall and winter, when teams competed at invitationals. Every team, Carr said, competes at invitationals. A competition consists of four three-hour rounds. Teams present the plaintiff’s case and the defendant’s case twice each.

The results at invitationals, Carr said, help “build the reputation of your school.”

Every team competes at regionals, as well. The teams that place first and second at regionals advance directly to the National Championship Tournament. Typically, those placing in third through fifth place-though it varies for each region-advance to the Silver National Tournament, which determines who competes at the National Championship Tournament.

As 610 advanced, students increased their practices to include more weekends. Consequently, the team earned its second visit to the national championship. This was the first year it qualified to go there directly from regionals.

Carr said he’s proud of the team’s success this year. But the last thing its members want to do is become complacent.

“We’ve had the best season of our 10-year career,” Carr said. “But are we satisfied with not having the championship? No. That’s what next year is for. But, having said that, a lot of teams would kill to be where we are.”

The team plans to focus on improving the way it delivers its arguments and perfecting its examinations and cross-examinations, Carr said. Team members take quizzes to learn the rules of evidence gathering.

Moroney said he believes the team can do this.

“We have this phenomenon that, in our nine years of existence, we’ve placed higher every year,” he said.

Moroney said the team’s adviser, Jennifer Satler, told them a story about how Pitt’s Mock Trial Team has evolved.

Its first year, Moroney said, the team had five members and they needed six to compete. To meet the magic number, one of the guys asked his girlfriend to attend the tournament, and they trained her to be a witness. They got “annihilated.”

“To think back, that now we can be beating the defending champions, it’s a cool feeling,” he said.

Now, Moroney said, Pitt is getting calls from the mock trial teams at other universities. Every year Pitt’s team attends a tournament at Wake Forest University. Recently, Wake Forest’s coach e-mailed the Pitt team to ask if they would still be able to attend if he moved the tournament date.

Carr said teams’ coaches play “an incredibly central role” in determining their victory. Satler is present at every practice, Carr said. Satler coaches all three of Pitt’s mock trial teams.

“Mock Trial’s the most rewarding volunteering that I’ve done,” Satler said. “It’s very rewarding to watch these students put on full trials better than attorneys do.”

Satler said Mock Trial looks impressive on a graduate school resume, even if the students don’t plan to attend law school. Some students, she said, attend interviews for medical school, and all they can talk about is mock trial.

Carr said people get involved in mock trial for many reasons. Carr played sports throughout high school and mock trial had the same competitive spirit, but with an academic edge.

Member Stanley Steers, a physics major, said he enjoys the “civic enrichment.” Being involved in mock trial has given him the ability to communicate with people who don’t work in science.

“If I only interact with members within my field, there’s certain vocabulary that doesn’t translate really well,” he said.

Moroney said he joined the team because he was interested in pursuing a career in law.

“What we do for mock trial is almost identical to what attorneys do,” he said. “You get a very clear, realistic idea of what trials are like.”

Carr said that, despite their differences, the team members all have one thing in common: “great analytical skill, creativity and a great work ethic.”