Wooster's Moot Court Team Wins Regional Tournament for Third Straight Year

WOOSTER, Ohio - The College of Wooster continued its dominance at the American Collegiate Moot Court Association (ACMA) Midwestern Regional Tournament, finishing first for the third year in a row and capturing just about every individual award along the way. The event, which was sponsored by the Wayne County Bar Association and hosted by Wooster Dec. 1-2, included teams from Denison, Eastern Illinois, Ohio Wesleyan, and Youngstown State.

Wooster, under the direction of head coach and professor of political science Mark Weaver, was led by seniors Anne Leigh and Steven Schott, who combined to finish first in the two-person competition. They were joined by seniors James Owens and Michael McMaster, who finished second. The semi-finalists for Wooster were juniors Michael Doerr and Deborah Coffman, and seniors Lauren Schreur and Eric Roscoe. Wooster's quarterfinalists were junior Andrew Gross and sophomore Katharine McCarthy; senior Cameron MacLeod and junior Drew Glassroth; juniors Jeff Kaatz and Lauren Mogavero; and juniors Abigail Kline and Matthew Jensen.

Those making it to the Round of 16 were junior Maureen Hanlon and sophomore Ross Buchanan; junior Heather Couch and sophomore Jonathan Williams; juniors Lynette Mattson and Samantha Spergel; first-year student Sarah Palagyi and sophomore Alexandra Schmitt; sophomore Elysia Tonti and senior Erik Shoemaker; seniors Andrew Stebbins and Robert Dible; and senior Michael von Ansbach-Young and junior Kyle Brainard.

The top individual orator, chosen on the basis of scores from the three preliminary rounds was Glassroth. Owens finished second, followed by Leigh in third, and MacLeod, who placed fourth. Rounding out the top eight for Wooster were Tonti in fifth, Dible in sixth, Hanlon in seventh, and Schreur in eighth. Denison's John Burzynski took ninth, while Wooster's Kaatz finished tenth.

"Our team this year was larger and more competitive than ever before, and for those reasons, it was very exciting to see everyone work so hard throughout the semester for such a brilliant outcome," said Leigh. "Our goal throughout the semester was to prepare as many teams as possible to feel comfortable and enjoy competing, not to mention the ever-present goal of any competitive team: to win. We met both of our goals, and I am proud to be a part of this team."

Moot court competition, which is open to all students at Wooster, is a type of forensic (speech and debate) exercise commonly used in law schools and many constitutional law courses in undergraduate programs throughout the United States. In contrast to mock trial, moot court is a simulation of an appellate court, in which the students play the role of attorneys who are engaged in oral arguments before a panel of judges. The judges play an active role in asking students questions about the facts of the case, the constitutional issues raised in the case, and the precedents that support or undercut their side of the argument.

ACMA competition features two-person teams - one representing the petitioner and the other representing the respondent. Each year the ACMA constructs a hypothetical case problem that presents two different constitutional questions so that each student can focus on one of the questions. However, each team of students must present arguments that are consistent and complementary, and judges frequently ask students questions that go beyond the specific constitutional issue they have been assigned.

Wooster's top finishers will advance to the national tournament next month at Regent Law School in Virginia Beach.