Two first-year students earned “outstanding witness” honors as the Loras Mock Trial Team competed recently in the opening round of the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament.

Leah Hocking and Fergus Chau were awarded plaques for their performances in the mid-March competition in Kansas City. In mock trial, all colleges are grouped together, regardless of size, and small, private schools like Loras compete against much larger Division I and Division II schools.

“We are happy with both Hocking and Chau, because with them being first-years, it is a sign of good things to come in the future,” said Mary Lynn Neuhaus, who coaches the mock-trial team and is a professor of communication arts.

Chau played the role of a janitor in a case in which he saw a professor commit suicide, but he is not interviewed because the news network determined that he is not a reliable source. Neuhaus said that a judge told her that “Chau was the best janitor he had seen all year in a defamation case.”

Hocking played a couple of “quite interesting roles” in the competition, Neuhaus said. She played the role of a gubernatorial candidate accused of murder by a news network six weeks before the election, eventually losing the election because of the charges. The candidate then sues the news network for defamation of character. On the opposing side, Hocking also played the role of the president of the news network.

Overall, the Loras team did not advance to the finals of the national tournament, despite winning six rounds and losing just two. This put Loras in a five-way tie, and Loras was the “odd man out” in a somewhat controversial decision. The team could not help but feel as though it was cheated.

“We were sad and disappointed, not just because we lost, but because we deserve to go on to the national tournament,” Chau said. He added that it was his understanding that Loras is the only team to have a 6-2-0 record in the opening round that did not qualify for the national tournament.

Although the team fell short of their preseason goals and their past accomplishments, Neuhaus saw no reason to be disappointed.

“Our end of the year was anti-climactic,” she said. “We are used to placing, but we still had a successful season. We were Midwest Regional Champions.”

The eventual champion of the national tournament this past weekend was a surprise to many.

“The national champion this year is Northwood University from Michigan, which defeated Loras in the first round,” Neuhaus said. “They are a smaller college, so it is great for them to have success, but they were an underrated school because they do not have the prestige that is associated with named schools like Harvard and the University of Maryland.”

The University of Iowa placed fourth at the competition and also was in the same regional as Loras. Neuhaus said that a transfer student from Loras to the University of Iowa, Elizabeth Mim, helped lead the university to its fourth-place finish.

Hocking ended the season with mixed feelings about the season.

“Overall, we did well, but we can always do better,” she said. “We were hopeful to reach the final round, but, as always, disappointments happen. I am interested to see what the case will be for next year. Our goal for next year is to make it to the final round, perform well and hopefully place.”