EKU Mock Trial Places 11th at National Championship Tournament

The Eastern Kentucky University Mock Trial team concluded a highly successful season with an 11th place finish at the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament (NCT) held in Cincinnati on April 17-19, 2015. Forty-eight teams competed at the National Championship Tournament, in a season that began with over 600 mock trial teams from across the nation.

EKU finished the tournament with a 6-6 record against an extremely tough set of opponents. The team began by taking one of three ballots against the University of Arizona, which finished seventh, then swept all three ballots against Ivy League opponent Brown University in the second round. EKU then took two of three ballots from the University of Delaware, the tenth-place team, before losing three close ballots to the second-place finishers, the University of California at Berkeley, in the fourth round.

EKU’s National Championship Tournament appearance was its first since 2012, when the team finished in 14th place. It was EKU’s highest finish at the NCT since 2009, when the team placed fifth.

This year’s NCT squad was composed entirely of Kentucky residents. The team featured three seniors who competed on the 2012 NCT squad as freshmen – Josh Lang, a political science major from Fort Thomas; Caleb Taylor, a political science major from Union; and Anthony Sean Potter, a political science major from Whitesburg. They were joined on the squad by Allie Maples, a political science major from Mount Sterling; Angel Spurlock, a chemistry teaching major from Mount Vernon; Matt Boggs, a political science major from Whitesburg; Troy Cox, a retired Navy veteran and paralegal science major from Lexington; Omar Salinas Chacón, a double major in Spanish and political science from Louisville; and Mackenzie Despain, a homeland security major from Campbellsville. Lang, Maples, Spurlock, Boggs, and Salinas Chacón are all members of the EKU Honors Program.

EKU faculty and staff working with the program include Tom Parker, Lynnette Noblitt, Kristeena Johnson, Brandon Williams, and Sara Zeigler.
 

Published on April 20, 2015