What really happened at the Mock Trial State Finals 2024

By Brittney Haldorsen ‘25

Sapphire Mock Trial team: (left to right) Vishaka P, Donnie R, Mahala L, Ava A, Sofia R, Anna Mueller (coach), Tyler G, Milo J, Caroline M, Andrew X, and Nathan C

Photo by Brittney Haldorsen ‘25

The Sapphire, one of Catlin Gabel School’s (CGS) Mock Trial teams, competed at the 2024 state competition along with 15 other teams. The team performed amazingly and got second place. The trial took place at Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse on Saturday, Mar. 16 through 17, and the team spent a total of 11 hours competing. 

Four rounds took place before scoring. After these rounds, the top CGS team was in first place and the West Linn Black team in second place. These teams made the top two out of 14 other teams. Both teams went on to a playoff in the 5th round. In this round, CGS performed well but West Linn Black ultimately edged out CGS and snagged first place.

The Sapphire team is one of two CGS Mock Trial teams, the other being Crystal. The team is coached by Anna Mueller and Richard Zanfardino. All rounds are set up as they would be in an actual courtroom trial with all positions being filled by students.

The first round of the State mock trial competition happened on Saturday. The team started the role of defense and competed against North Eugene High School. All teams followed the same case about a plane crash lawsuit, which they had practiced since the fall of 2023. Each student played a different role.

In the second round of the competition, Sapphire switched to filling the role of prosecution against West Linn Gold, a school that was caught cheating and violating Rule 35. Rule 35 is brought up when a team has serious reason to believe that a material rule or ethical violation has occurred.

In the third round, Sapphire started as a prosecution against Crater High School. Caroline Mauro, a junior, demonstrated performative acting as a witness, going as far as bursting into tears on the spot to emphasize her role. The judges even pointed this out after the round had concluded.

In an interview, Mauro said, “I guess I just got really into the role. I wanted people to know my character was passionate.” 

In the fourth round, Sapphire played against West Linn Black as the defense. For this round, Andrew Xu, a senior, and this year’s CGS defense closer, showed true sportsmanship when the opposing team's closer failed to reserve time for rebuttal. Xu stood up and argued why the team should be allowed it regardless, even though this could have cost his own team points. 

This was after Sapphire knew West Linn was cheating with other teams and adding information to the case, but Xu still wanted West Linn Black to be allowed a rebuttal. 

In an interview, Xu stated, “I knew that we didn’t want to be like them. I would rather have lost a fair trial than have won by cheating or smudging the rules, so it was a no-brainer.”

After this round, Sapphire gathered up along with the 15 other teams and the judges announced which teams would compete in the final round. Everyone on the team was hoping to at least place in the top 5, but as the other teams got called the hope slowly disappeared from many of their faces. 

Sophomore Vishaka Priyan thought there was no way they would place. But to her surprise they placed first, meaning they would go on to the final round, which took place shortly after. 

This was the first time Mock Trial had made it into the state final competition in 10 years, and the last time they qualified for the state competition was 4 years ago. So, everyone on the team was ecstatic that they had gotten this far.

In the 5th round, Sapphire was the prosecution against West Linn Black, the team they had just played who had gotten second place. This time, they battled for 1st place to see who would go to Delaware for Nationals. 

This round the team consistently "motioned to strike" offending testimony from the other team off the record. Even when their objections were overruled, they continued to make numerous complex objections like 702 (basis of opinion testimony by experts), 404 (character evidence), 609 (impeachment by evidence of conviction of crime and juvenile adjudications), and 805 (hearsay within hearsay). 

Nearing the end of this round, the judge asked if any Rule 35s were to be presented by either defense or prosecution. The prosecution (Sapphire) took this as their opportunity to finally call out all the made-up evidence and facts they created throughout the trial. They presented the judge with six rule 35’s.

Every violation was allowed a response and a rebuttal from both teams, and the prosecution (West Linn Black) was able to escape every violation because the cases were so large they would have had to be studied by the judge and would need a review of the tape of what was exactly said. 

Sadly, this led to the eventual loss of the Mock Trial State Finals from the Sapphire team, allowing West Linn Black to win the competition.

Despite losing the actual competition, Sapphire stayed in good sportsmanship, congratulating the other team members. Sapphire managed to avoid any accusations of rule violations, and had great performances throughout each role the team played. 

Senior Ava Austria said, “If I  were to be attending high school next year, I would still do it all over again.”