After competing in four trials in a span of 27 hours at the Mock Trial State Finals in Sacramento this past weekend, Menlo’s Mock Trial team was awarded fifth place. Menlo went 3-1, it’s only loss coming to a top ten team from Riverside County, beating the Santa Clara, Contra Costa, and Shasta County teams back-to-back-to-back on Saturday.

Menlo's Mock Trial accepts its 5th place award on stage at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento

In addition to bringing home a 5^thgrade plaque and medals, two Menlo students were awarded individual awards for their performances over the weekend. Sophomore Kate Park was selected as one of the best witnesses in the state and junior Helena Abbott was chosen as the best clerk (time keeper).

Sophomore Kate Park was recognized as one of the best witnesses in CA.

The team was very happy with the result, especially considering it was assigned a relatively hard first-round matchup, as it finished higher than many of the best teams in the state such as Tamalpais High School (Marin County), Rio Americano High School (Sacramento County), Riverside Polytechnic High School (Riverside County), Redlands High School (San Bernardino County), and Arcadia High School (Los Angeles County). Last year at states, Menlo finished in tenth place after losing in the quarter-finals and three years ago Menlo came in third overall. But after an early round loss, Menlo was the best team out of the twenty-eight teams that were not undefeated going into the final fourth round.

La Reina High School, an all-girls-school in Ventura County, won the title for the second-consecutive year and will now head to Albuquerque New Mexico for Nationals. Dos Pueblos High School of Santa Barbara County came in second place after losing to La Reina in a very close championship round Sunday morning. “There was a lot of competition. We’re very proud, and we’re excited about nationals,” junior Hanna Delsohn of La Reina said. It is the first high school in ten years to win twice in a row since Lincoln High School of Santa Clara County won in 2001 and 2002.

Thirty-two teams from across California travelled to the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s 31^stannual State Finals after winning their respective county competitions. Menlo beat arch-rival Hillsdale High School in the San Mateo County Finals about a month ago in an unanimous 8-0 decision. This year’s case was about the murder of a college student, Becca Abeles, who was stabbed at a music festival in the fictional Emerald City Desert. Her childhood friend and fellow Wheeler University student Ryan Buschell was charged with both second-degree murder and concealment of a carried weapon without a permit.

Menlo's Defense team won two trials on Saturday at the Mock Trial State Finals in Sacramento

Earlier this season Menlo’s team won the Providence Cup invitational tournament in Denver, Colorado as well as the Northern California Invitational Tournament.