Mock Trial Team wins county for 16th time; heading to state
State event will be held April 2 in Santa Ana
DEREK KETNER

The Yosemite High School Mock Trial Team will participate in the state competition again this year after winning the county championship for the 16th year in a row.

In Mock Trial, students portray lawyers or witnesses. There is also a bailiff and timekeeper.

The team is given a fictitious crime and must try to win their case. There is a prosecution, defense and eight witnesses.

The witnesses must learn the facts and memorize their statements that have been made and answer the questions by the lawyers.

Lawyers must know the situation and be able to ask for objections and respond to objections against them.

The team competes against other teams in a county-wide competition with a real judge and is scored by professional attorneys.

After scrimmaging Buchanan High, ranked sixth in the state last year, Yosemite defeated Madera High in both prosecution and defense for the county championship. Winning county allows them to go to the state competition the weekend of April 2 in Santa Ana.

Jason Koczanowicz, Land-on Grossi, Amit Gurnani, Kristin Lukan, Veronica Stew-art, Paige Turpen, Caitlin Blum and Melanie Deto received special recognition awards for their roles in the competition.

The YHS Mock Trial defense team is Koczanowicz, Turpen and Bree Boyd; pretrial, Lukan and Gurnani; prosecution, Ali Watt, Stewart and Gabriella Ripley-Phipps.

Witnesses are Blum, Chris-tine Casner, Deto, Jessie Fischer, Grossi, Jessica Tyson and Valerie Woolard. Aman-da Schotke plays bailiff and Brittany Bohner is timekeeper.

Anyone interested in making a donation to help cover the expenses for the state competition can call the team’s advisor, Jim Lee, at 658-4667 ext. 297.