Tufts Mock Trial (TMT) started their 10th anniversary season strong last weekend, faring well at both the Columbia University Big Apple Invitational Tournament and the Happy Valley Invitational at Pennsylvania State University.
TMT went 5-2-1 at Columbia, earning themselves a fifth place finish, and went 3-4-1 at Penn State. The results bode well for TMT's season, according to TMT Co-President Brian Pilchik.
"After last weekend we're looking really good," TMT Co-President Nicholas Teleky, a junior, said. "It's looking like we'll be one of the more prepared schools going into regionals. Our talent is greater than in past semesters, especially with all of our new freshmen."
TMT took on ten new members this semester, according to TMT Director of Internal Affairs Ben Kurland.
"We don't expect to win every tournament because our freshmen are new," Kurland, a junior, said. "There were two freshmen on the team that got fifth place."
Many of the new members have no prior mock trial experience but were selected for their potential, Pilchik explained. According to him, many of them are talented actors and speakers.
"Some of the teams that we hit might be fully veteran," Pilchik, a senior, said. "The fact that Tufts is doing so well with our mixed teams really shows the strength of our new membership."
According to Pilchik, TMT's returning members saw success as well. TMT took home Outstanding Witness Awards from both invitationals. Junior Ayal Pierce received the award at Columbia and Kurland received the award at Penn State.
"It's really cool to be able to receive two different awards at two different places," Kurland said. "It really speaks to the depth of our program that we can go to two different places and still do that well."
TMT's victories are reason to be excited, Kurland said. The team is doing unprecedentedly well.
"Columbia is the hardest invitational we go to in the fall semester, so finishing fifth this early in the season is amazing," Kurland said.
Although Tufts did not place at Penn State, Kurland, who co-captained the Penn State team, is proud of the team's performance.
"We did really well," Kurland said. "The score might not represent how well we did [but] when we won, we won by a lot. When we lost, we lost by a little."
This year, the team hopes to focus their efforts on familiarizing themselves with the case, which covers an amusement park robbery, so that they can be competitive when the more important spring season comes around, Kurland explained.
"The point of the fall season is to train everyone and to share knowledge and talent," Pilhick said. "The goal of this season is to learn how this case works and how mock trial works so that come spring we have a strong team."
Tufts was one of four schools to send two teams to nationals last year, according to Teleky. They hope to send two teams again.
"Tufts has made it to nationals for the last four years now, we anticipate going back," Pilchik said. "If the beginning of our season is any indication, we should be able to do it."
TMT's competitiveness is particularly impressive considering that the team is completely student-run, Pilchik added.
"While other teams have professional attorneys coach them, ours is a program of people figuring it out ourselves," Pilchik said.
This year marks TMT's 10th anniversary.
"Ten years later without a faculty advisor, without a coach, we're nationally ranked and placing in competitions and doing things [on the same level as] schools that have been around a lot longer," Pilchik said.
