Northwood University’s Mock Trial Team had a strong finish at the 2022 National Championship Tournament (NCT), which was held April 8-10 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and hosted by the American Mock Trial Association.
Northwood faced four teams, tying with Duke University; winning a very close round against Michigan State University; narrowly losing to The Ohio State University; and finishing their round against Rhodes College with a tie on one judge’s ballot and a 1 and 3 point loss, respectively, on the other two judges’ ballot. The end result was Northwood just missing out (by 3 points) on another Top 10 finish in their division at the national competition.
“Our final record of 4 wins, 2 ties and 6 losses, was achieved by a Northwood team with only one student who had ever attended an in-person National Championship Tournament due to COVID forcing many tournaments to be held virtually,” said DeLois T. Leapheart, director of Northwood’s Mock Trial Program. “We are extremely proud of this young team’s accomplishments!”
The following students competed in this year’s national tournament:
Lukas Baker, Belmont
Aidan Garvie, Elk Grove, California
Riley Hayer, Clare
DeLorean Ishmon, Eastpointe
Teagan O’Bryan, Lapeer
Theodore (Ted) Schultz, Mason
Pietro Vitale, Woodhaven
J. Austin Wolfe, Cincinnati, Ohio
This academic year, 718 teams registered with the American Mock Trial Association. After all the qualifier tournaments were completed in March, only the top 48 teams were invited to nationals. These 48 teams (representing the top 6% of teams from colleges around the country) had less than a month to prepare a case for the national tournament.
All teams who competed demonstrated elite communication, critical thinking and teamwork skills.
This is the 13th time Northwood’s Mock Trial Team has qualified for nationals over the past 18 years.
