Miami Mock Trial teams: First-place tie and a seventh place in nationals

Two teams from the Miami University James Lewis Family Mock Trial program placed in the top 10 in the Mock Trial National Championship tournament held April 16-18 in Memphis, Tenn. Miami’s first squad tied for first place and the second squad placed seventh in the national tournament. 

Miami is among only four programs in the nation, out of more than 350 colleges and universities, to place two teams in the final top 10 at the national championships. 

Miami tied for first place (with seven wins, one loss) with Harvard, New York and Northwood universities. With this year’s national championship performance, the Miami mock trial program moves up to third place in the nation in the “BBR” (bonus bid rankings), the three-year performance gauge of collegiate mock trial programs. Northwood moved in first place with New York University placing second. 

Gus Lazares, the first squad’s closing attorney on both prosecution and defense, was named one of the top 20 mock trial attorneys in the nation and achieved All-American status. Lazares, a senior economics major from Maineville, will be volunteering for Teach for America for two years before going to law school. 

Mike Woeste, a first-year political science major from Loveland, was the national championship tournament’s only perfect-scoring witness, earning the highest All-American witness honor. 

Members of the first team are: Alex Bluebond, senior economics and philosophy double major; Kristi Flynn, junior Chinese major; Jaime Glinka, senior political science major and business legal studies minor; Jeremy Grondin, senior mathematics major and computer science minor; Pavel Gurevich, sophomore management information systems and finance double major and Spanish minor; Kevin Harrison, senior management and organizations and political science double major; Tom Jeffcott, senior interdisciplinary business management major; Gus Lazares, senior economics major; Krista Pikus, sophomore business legal studies major; and Jackie Sherrick, senior political science major and Spanish minor. 

Members of the second team are: Ian Ferrell, junior business economics major; Emily Homel, senior psychology major and political science minor; Brad Kent, freshman business economics major; Scott Lippert, senior English literature and classical humanities double major; Michelle Markham, senior management and organizations and political science double major and business legal studies minor; Dan Nickels, junior finance major; Daniela Pierre-Bravo, sophomore political science major; Elizabeth Sams, junior political science and economics double major; Alycia Walker, sophomore political science major and women’s studies minor; and Mike Woeste, freshman political science major. 

Dan Herron, professor of business legal studies, is director of the mock trial program. Additional coaches in the program are Wayne Staton, associate professor of finance; Dan Haughey, instructor of finance and a Butler County Area Court judge; Barry Tolchin, first year adviser; and Lawrence Hilton (Miami M.S. ’08), student at the Chase School of Law. 

The Miami program also provides student coaches to the Talawanda High School mock trial program and led them to the state tournament this year. 

The James Lewis Family Miami Mock Trial Program is named in honor of alumnus Jim Lewis’ family. Lewis is a member of the Business Advisory Council of Miami’s Farmer School of Business. 

For more information about the program go to www.miamimocktrial.org.