Winning two of three ballots, the undefeated Mock Trial defense team beat Del Campo High School 408-389 on Feb. 12 at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse in round three of the county competition.
Country Day is ranked second in the county, 1% behind Rio Americano.
Sophomore defense attorney Sanjana Anand, declared MVP by Del Campo, said the trial was “nerve-wracking.”
“We had more pressure this trial,” Anand said. “We needed to win to qualify for (the) quarterfinals and were going against a higher-seeded team. There were only four undefeated teams left this season, and both teams (in our trial) were unbeaten, which made it more nerve-wracking and exciting.”
Anand added that the trial ran longer than the usual two hours.
“(The trial) ran for about three hours,” Anand said. “(Both teams) were so close and equally matched that our objections continued for a long time.”
According to junior defendant Sarina Rye, the team was warned about objecting too often in its 449-386 win over River City on Feb. 6.
“I was a bit disappointed in our performance (against Del Campo),” Rye said. “We (were) defense last week and got comments from the scoring attorneys about knowing when to object and when to stop arguing and to rest your case. However, we still made those mistakes, and the score attorneys commented on objections once again.”
Despite the lengthy objections, junior unofficial timer Keshav Anand said the team articulated well.
“(Senior team captain) Héloïse Schep did a great job with objections and her directs, crosses and close,” Keshav Anand said. “Everyone’s articulation and overall performances were good.”
Coach Rick Lewkowitz agreed, noting a few standout members.
“(Freshman) Samhita Kumar was outstanding as our pretrial attorney,” Lewkowitz said. “We also had some positives with student attorneys Héloïse Schep and Sanjana Anand holding Del Campo accountable for being loose with the case.”
According to Rye, Keshav Anand helped get her extra time for the defendant’s direct examination.
“Keshav stepped in as unofficial timekeeper (at the) last minute and alerted the court to a time discrepancy (made by Del Campo), giving us 30 seconds more, which was very helpful,” Rye said.
The team’s next match is Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. The prosecution will compete against Elk Grove at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse.
—By Arijit Trivedi
