EKU Mock Trial Heads to the Big Dance!

Eastern Kentucky University’s Mock Trial Team is going to the National Championship Tournament! EKU will have four more weeks of mocking courtesy of its first-place finish at the American Mock Trial Association’s Opening Round Championship (ORC) Series tournament in Memphis, Tennessee. EKU split its first-round matchup with Baylor University before sweeping ballots in the remaining three rounds against the University of Alabama, Millsaps College, and Texas A&M.

By finishing first in the 24-team tournament, EKU earned a bid to AMTA’s National Championship Tournament (NCT) in Greenville, South Carolina, on April 15-17, 2016. Five other teams qualified for the 48-team National Championship Tournament out of the Memphis ORC: the University of Cincinnati, Rhodes College (two teams), Washington University in St. Louis, and Millsaps College.

EKU will be the lone NCT team from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, as well as the nation’s only regional-comprehensive institution in the 48-team field. EKU’s remarkable run this year has included three first-place tournament finishes (Great Lakes Invitational, AMTA Regional in Louisville, and AMTA ORC in Memphis), a program record.

Allie Maples, a junior Political Science major from Mount Sterling, was the only student in the tournament to receive an Outstanding Attorney Award on both the prosecution and defense sides of the case. Anthony Sean Potter, a senior Political Science major from Whitesburg, earned an Outstanding Witness Award for his portrayal of a forensic investigator in the case.

Other members of the Championship-bound team include Matt Boggs, a senior Political Science and History double major from Whitesburg; Ryan Wiggins, a freshman Political Science major from Georgetown; Melissa Mahan, a junior Anthropology major from Bloomington, IL; Laura Jackson, a sophomore Political Science major from Artemus; and Mackenzie DeSpain, a senior Homeland Security major from Campbellsville. Maples, Boggs, and Jackson are all members of the EKU Honors Program.

The EKU Mock Trial program is sponsored by EKU University Programs. Faculty and staff assisting with the program include Tom Parker, Lynnette Noblitt, Brandon Williams, Kristeena Johnson, and Dean Sara Zeigler.
 

Contact Information

Thomas Parker
thomas.parker@eku.edu
859-893-8284

Published on March 23, 2016