After having narrowly missed the regional qualifiers last year, members of Priory’s Mock Trial program were eager to improve our footing. Mr. Chris Dysart (father of freshmen Adam and Andrew Dysart) joined our coaching staff which also included Mr. Tom Niemann (Priory Alumni), Mr. Dixon and Fr. Benedict. Mr. Dixon did some extra scouting and recruiting in the offseason, so we ended up with three total teams this year: two JV teams and one varsity team. By the end of the year, our JV teams were competing quite well and holding their ground against some formidable opponents, and beating some tough opponents. Some breakout stars from the JV teams include Attorney Christian Bolin and Witness Jonathon Sadasivam.
Our Varsity Team this year consisted of only one returning varsity attorney: Cam Wong. The other two varsity attorneys were Chuck Taylor (who was previously a varsity witness) and Sophomore JJ Meddler, who was on JV last year. Our witnesses consisted of Sophomore Austin Kovak, Junior Gavin Gittemeier and myself. In our first trial of the year, we swept the score board and won all three ballots against the Maplewood Richmond Heights JV team. However, despite the substantial victory, we were ranked rather low in the standings for the St. Louis area. Luckily though, we beat SLUH in the next trial after they forfeited on us at the last minute. Initially, we were quite concerned with how the seeding was going to play out. Only the top sixteen teams advanced to the regional tournament, and SLUSH’s forfeiture put our point differential in jeopardy. After some clarification with the rules, though, it was guaranteed that we would make it in, because we won every ballot that season. It turned out that we finished 13th in the region after the first two trials, which sneaked us into the playoffs. So, for the first since 2022, Priory Mock Trial was heading to the Regional St. Louis Tournament. Only the top ten from that tournament would move on to the state tournament.
In the first trial, we were assigned the defense side of the case (which was easier to win) against De Smet, who we beat with flying colors. However, the more concerning issue was that we had to take the prosecution’s side of the case (quite a bit more difficult for murder trials due to the burden of proof) against Parkway South. Parkway South is a long standing powerhouse in Mock Trial and was ranked fourth in our region. We fought long and hard against them, but in the end, we prevailed, and we climbed the rankings all the way up to third in the St. Louis area. Hence, we would be heading to state.
