UMBC Mock Trial success at AMTA Regionals!

I am thrilled to bring you fantastic news from the world of UMBC Mock Trial. During the first weekend in February, UMBC A and B traveled to Chapel Hill, NC for the first week of American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) Regional Tournaments. After a long drive, brutal schedules, and nail biting results, I am thrilled to announce that UMBC A HAS EARNED A BID TO THE NATIONAL SEMIFINAL TOURNAMENT IN MARCH!!!

This bid marks the tenth consecutive year that UMBC Mock Trial has advanced to ORCS (the "Opening Round Championship Series") and we are so excited to continue our quest to return to Nationals. Special recognition should go to UMBC's four award winning competitors: attorneys Michelle Enomanna, Fadil Adeite (program Vice-President), and Alysha Carter, and witness Isaiah Dunn (program Diversity Chair). I also have to give special recognition to head coaches Thomas Azari '22 and Natalie Murray '22 and assistant coaches Lauren Wotring '22 and Nihir Nanavaty '19 for leading the teams in their preparation for Regionals. They are all former students of mine and amazing former competitors, and I am so proud of them for their leadership of this program. 

I want to highlight one aspect of this bid for UMBC A: their strength of schedule. Strength of schedule is measured at AMTA tournaments by something called "combined strength" or "CS." It counts all the ballots won by your four opponents and serves as a tiebreak metric for bids. UMBC A advanced despite an astonishing CS of 23; all four teams they faced had winning records, and UMBC had to fight through two different teams from Patrick Henry College, one of the nation's elite programs.

I can't end this without acknowledging UMBC B for their outstanding performance as well. They swept rounds against Radford University and Alamance College, and finished with an excellent 4-4 record despite it being the first regional tournament for almost the entire team. We are so proud of them for their efforts and we know the members on that team also represented UMBC with pride and distinction.

This has been a great year for UMBC Mock Trial; we've won the Spirit of AMTA award (given to the team voted by other teams to have the best collegiality and sportsmanship at the tournament) four times and been honorable mention for SPAMTA twice. Despite the program being as young as it has ever been, with only one member having more than a year of collegiate Mock Trial experience and two brand new head coaches, we've won several team and individual awards. And most importantly, the students have grown as people and as competitors, and they continue to represent our National Championship-winning program with distinction. 

Next - on to ORCS! I cannot wait to bring you even more good news next month, and I am so proud of the entire UMBC Mock Trial Program for their incredible accomplishments.

Sincerely,

Ben Garmoe '13

Faculty Advisor, UMBC Mock Trial