Miami Takes 6th Place at 2011 Nationals

Last year, the 2009-2010 James Lewis Family Mock Trial Team was about as good as it got: 7-1 at nationals, 1 point away from a perfect tournament and a chance to play in the national championship final. Spectacular attorneys lead by All-American Gus Lazares with Tom Jeffcott and Kevin Harrison and witnesses lead by seniors Jackie Sherrick, Jaime Glinka, Jeremy, Grondin, and Alex Bluebond. All Seniors….all graduated….the only “letterman” back for this year, from one of the best teams in all of Miami mock trial history, was sophomore witness Pavel Gurevich.


Clearly, 2010-2011 would be a rebuilding year: a painful, growing, and developing year…uh, except someone forgot to tell that to the 2010-2011 edition of the James Lewis Family Miami Mock Trial Team. This “rebuilding” team took it down to the wire in Des Moines, Iowa April 15-17 before finishing up in 6th place in the nation at the national championship tournament. Playing the Universities of Cincinnati, California-Berkeley, and Texas-Austin in the first three rounds, the Miami “Mock Hawks” were posed to challenge for the national championship. They needed to take two ballots from mock trial power Macalester College. Macalester was equally in the hunt as well and needed to take two ballots from Miami. Well, as these things go, Miami won ballot #1 by 4 points and Macalester took ballot #2 also by 4 points. UCLA would go on to win the national championship only one ballot ahead of Miami, who settled for 6th, Macalester was half a ballot behind and finished 4th. UCLA defeated defending national champions NYU in the final round.

So much for Miami’s rebuilding year. When 630 teams started in September and Miami was fielding a brand new, untested team, few gave the Redhawks much of a chance. So much for conventional wisdom.

Coincidentally, the one veteran on the squad—junior Pavel Gurevich—earned an All-American Award for his witness portrayal of Dr. Ranier Gardner, a forensic and pharmacological expert. Members of the 6th ranked team in the country, in addition to Gurevich, are: Senior Michelle Markham, Juniors Joe Luizzi, Alycia Walker, Daniela Pierre-Bravo, Sophomore Katie Law, and First Years Deborah O’Neal and Alex Block. That’s right, only one senior; everyone else in back…suffice it to say, it won’t be a rebuilding year, it will be a reloading year!