With finals finished and the calendar on the cusp of turning over to 2017, it's time to reflect on our historic fall semester. Every fall, UMBC takes part in "invitationals," tournaments hosted by other mock trial programs. These differ from the big tournaments in the spring semester (Regionals, ORCS, and Nationals) because they are not directly sponsored by the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) and do not impact a team's success in the AMTA playoffs.
Nonetheless, invitationals are an excellent preparation for the playoff tournaments and doing well in the fall is a sign of prestige for a program.
Despite success at Regionals the previous two season, earning bid to ORCS in 2015 and 2016, UMBC Mock Trial never had as strong a fall semester as this year.
For the first time in the Program's history, a team "placed" at a fall invitational tournament, with the A Team earning 4th place at Drexel University's Market Street Invitational. The B Team would add to this by finishing 3rd at Elizabethtown College's Blue Jay Invitational. The A Team rounded out the autumnal victories with a 5th place finish at Temple University's Hooter Invitational.
Below you will find a tournament by tournament break down of how well the teams did and who won individual awards (spoiler alert, a lot UMBC competitors won awards this fall!).
Keep watching this space as we will continue bringing you exciting UMBC Mock Trial news into the New Year!
A Team Record: 20-11-1
B Team Record: 10-6-0
Individual Awards: 9
Market Street Invitational (Hosted by Drexel University)
-A Team: 6-2 record, fourth place finish
-Personal Awards: Dylan Rogers Elliott (Attorney), Kayla Smith (Witness)
Blue Jay Invitational (Hosted by Elizabethtown College)
-B Team: 6-2 record, third place finish
-Personal Awards: Sam Dhawan (Attorney), Jaedon Huie (Attorney), Evan Avila (Witness)
Colonial Classic (Hosted by The College of William and Mary)
-A Team: 3-5
-Personal Awards: Kayla Smith (Witness)
Hooter (Hosted by Temple University)
-A Team: 5-2-1, fifth place finish
-Personal Awards: Zuhair Riaz (Attorney), Kayla Smith (Witness), Kaitlyn Kauffman (Witness)
-B Team: 4-4
