This year, both of Revere’s Mock Trial teams made it to the regional round. One of the teams advanced this season to the State finals, where they made it to the Round of Eight.
Revere’s Mock Trial Team 2 competed against 28 others at the Ohio State Finals held in Columbus. The event took place between March 7-9.
This was Mock Trial’s third time going to the state finals since 2020. The previous state finals Revere attended were during the COVID outbreak, where the teams had to compete via Zoom.
The team that qualified to the regional round this season included Sheza Qasim, Katie Kunkel, Maggie Zurn, Parisa Nostrati, Bea Simi, Daniel Ferrara, Drew Muehlfeld, Kavana Lokesh, Kinda Sabti, and Kofi Nuamah. The team was coached by Tom Kelley and Seth Neimi.
This year’s team members who made it to the State Finals included Neha Yadavalli, Saumya Mahajan, Shane Yankovitz, Lily Blower, Bella Soful, Jack Skidmore, Matthew Smith, Mya Jaber and Paul Torma. The legal advisers leading them to State Finals include Tom Skidmore and Lucas Blower.
Lucas Blower, a legal adviser since 2016, explained how the state finals works. This was his first year taking a team to in-person states. He described what the qualifying process is like for the state finals.
“There are two rounds you’ve got to win to get to states. The first is districts, and then regionals. You have two sides, the prosecution and defense. Both your sides have to win against other schools, and then the process repeats at regionals. And if both your sides win, then you can go forward,” Blower said.
Saumya Mahajan, a junior at Revere, is in her third year with Mock Trial. She described what she felt led her team to the state finals.
“The people that we have are all really dedicated. They’ve put the effort in, and that’s the reason that we’ve been able to get so far,” Mahajan said.
Blower shared a few qualities he thinks his team possesses that made them so successful this season.
“They are creative, tenacious and polished. One thing I’ll say about this team is that they have done more to incorporate the things that their coaches have suggested than any team that I’ve personally coached before,” Blower said.
This dedication is evident in the team’s Friday after school and weekday practices. This is where the teams meet and run through the trial they may be competing in that following weekend. One of the mock trial team’s witnesses, Senior Shane Yankovitz, explained how a typical meeting runs.
“We usually have a Friday meeting with both teams, and then one time through the week you have one with your individual team. And you go through the witnesses, you go through direct examination, and then cross examination, and then the lawyers usually work on objections and their openings and closings,” Yankovitz said.
The actual state final event is run almost as a game of “knock-out”, with teams competing until they lose a round. Blower explained how the event ran.
“There are at least three rounds to get to who the state qualifiers are. So it could be as few as two trials, because you at least need two to put both teams against each other. It could be as few as two and as many as eight. You get two guaranteed rounds and then it depends how far you go,” Blower said.
The team advanced to the third round of State finals and became a part of the top 8 State finalists.
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