The Mock Trial team, playing the prosecution, narrowly lost its second competition of the year against Elk Grove High School on Feb. 18.
Elk Grove took first place in the county last year.
Country Day received 49.2% of the points, the final score being 310-320.
Junior Emma Belliveau, an attorney along with senior George Cvetich, attributed the loss to missing objections and needing a stronger grasp of the questions they were asking the witnesses.
Cvetich agreed.
“We lost because we had weak cross-examinations and were not thinking on our feet as well as we can,” Cvetich said. “We were kind of lackadaisical with our objections. We need to be more in the moment.”
However, they also noted that Mock Trial scoring can be relative.
“I also think it was because everyone knows Elk Grove has a reputation for being a good team, and that aided them in scoring,” Belliveau said.
“One judge may like that you did one thing, and a different judge may dislike it and mark you down for it,” said sophomore Jaelan Trapp. “Both Country Day and Elk Grove fought pretty hard and it really could have gone either way.”
“I think we had good passion throughout the trial and we put in a lot of effort,” Belliveau said. “ (Cvetich) did really well on his closing, and some scoring judges told me they really enjoyed my cross-examinations.”
“We had good confidence and had a good command of the courtroom,” Cvetich said.
Trapp agreed.
“More or less everything went as it was intended,” he said. “So I guess we just really had our roles down pat.”
However, Cvetich said he doesn’t think that the team participated anywhere near its highest level.
“We should’ve beat them. But it’s good it happened in an early round,” he said.
Round 3 will be Monday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m.
