MIAMI PLACES TWO TOP TEN TEAMS IN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Miami Completes Successful Season With First-Place Tie and Seventh Place

First Year Mike Woeste Earns Top Tournament Witness; Senior Guz Lazares Earns All-American Attorney Award

To be so close and yet so far… what a difference one point can make!! But, Miami once again showed that its intellectual prowess runs with the nation’s elite as its mock trial program again finished in the very top tier. It is among the three or four elite programs in the nation (out of 350+ colleges and universities) to place two teams in the final top ten at the national championships, and its top team was just that one point away from it all!

The James Lewis Family Miami Mock Trial Program stormed Memphis, Tennessee with a blistering performance by its two teams in the mock trial national championship April 16-18. The “Final 48” field (from an original 650) was divided into two 24 team divisions with the two top teams to play for the national championship: at the end of the four round tournament there were four teams left standing—defending national champion Northwood University and New York University from one division and Harvard and Miami from the other division.. All four teams were tied at the top of their divisions with seven wins and only one loss. Miami’s lone loss was by just one point out of one hundred and forty total points. Miami and Harvard did not meet in the courtroom but Harvard won the tie-breaker over Miami by the narrowest of margins while NYU edged out Northwood in their division’s tiebreaker. Harvard and NYU played the final round for the national title.

Miami’s second squad held its own as well, earning 7th place by prevailing over the University Wisconsin-Superior, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University. They dropped ballots to the University of Texas. Mike Woeste, a first year political science major from Loveland, Ohio and St. Xavier High School was the national championship tournament’s only perfect-scoring witness earning the highest All-American witness honor.

Miami’s first squad prevailed over Duke, Texas, St. Olafs, and the University of Iowa. All four opponents trophied at the tournament. Gus Lazares, the team’s closing attorney on both prosecution and defense, was named one of the 20 top attorneys in the nation and achieved All-American status. Lazares is a senior economics major from Maineville, Ohio and a Kings High School graduate. He will be volunteering for “Teach for America” this fall in Indianapolis for two years before going on to law school.

The members of the top Miami squad are, in addition to Lazares: seniors Tom Jeffcott, business legal studies major form North Canton; Kevin Harrison, management major from Mason; Alex Bluebond, economics major from Akron; Jackie Sherrick, political science major from Dublin; Jaime Glinka, political science major from Delaware, OH; Jeremy Grondin, math major from Hilliard; junior Kristi Flynn, Chinese major, from Columbus and sophomores Pavel Gurevich, finance major, from Solon; Krista Pikus, business legal studies major, from Columbus, Indiana.

Miami’s second team has only two graduating seniors: Scott Lippert, English major from Cincinnati and Emily Homel, psychology major from Covington, KY.

Most of the seniors are starting law school or graduate school in the fall in addition to Lazares’ Teach for America stint: Alex Bluebond to Duke Law, Emily Homel to Cincinnati Law, Scott Lippert to Case Western Reserve Law, Kevin Harrison to Wake Forest Law, Tom Jeffcott to Capitol University Law, Jaime Glinka and Jackie Sherrick will be in a yet-to-be-decided law school. Jeremy Grondin will be in graduate school to Notre Dame.

In this year’s case, the State of Midlands has accused Jackie Owens of the murder of his friend and movie studio business partner Jacob Bennett. Owens was heavily indebt from gambling and his creditors were “after” Owens. But then an almost miraculous opportunity presented itself: an offer was made to buy Owens and Bennett’s business for enough money to pay off all of Owens’ gambling debts. But, business partner Bennett refused and his body was found buried in a shallow grave in the Calkins Cliffs in the State of Midlands. Owens was charged with the murder. Each team must play defense and prosecution twice in each competition.

With this year’s national championship performance, the Miami program moves up to 3rd place in the nation in the running three year “BBR” (bonus bid rankings), the three year performance gauge of collegiate mock trial programs. Northwood moved in 1st place with NYU placing second.

The James Lewis Family Mock Trial Program is directed by business legal studies professor Daniel Herron. In addition to Herron, coaches include business legal studies professor Dan Haughey and Wayne Staton, first-year resident hall advisor Barry Tolchin, and second year law student Lawrence Hilton from Chase Law School. The Miami program also provides student coaches to the Talawanda High School mock trial program and lead them to the state tournament this year.