USN Mock Trial team earns 2nd Place at State Tournament

After winning one of the most competitive mock trial districts in the country, USN headed to the State Tournament and turned in another strong performance.
By Wilson Hubbell, Mock Trial Faculty Advisor

After a set of 4 tough rounds at the Historic Downtown Courthouse, USN finished in the top 2 at this year's State Mock Trial Tournament.

They faced a formidable Agathos team that had just taken down MBA in the 4th round in a final to decide the State Champions. Interestingly, we had just faced Agathos in the 3rd round that morning, and based on all available evidence, we had lost it. But narrowly, because we must have taken one of the three ballots to have finished in 2nd place after 4 rounds.

So then everything is a clean slate. It was winner-take-all in the final round against Agathos. Instead of 3 scoring judges, there is a full jury of 12, and the presiding judge was Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sarah Campbell. The team then flips a coin to see who plays what side (prosecution or defense) they'll argue. Agathos won the coin toss and decided to run the exact same sides we ran that morning. Oof. We are the prosecution, and based on the evidence, this is really an unwinnable case.

But in the end, we lost not only the case but also the competition to an absolutely incredible Agathos team. I will not be surprised if they win Nationals this year. And thus it is 2nd place for us. 
What an amazing USN Mock Trial team we had this year!
 
Alice Littlehale ’26 won MVP for the team, and Binyam Dunne ’26 was awarded #1 Best Advocate for the Defense in the entire tournament (they award 3 of these awards, but they are ordered 3, 2, and 1....and Binyam was #1). It is hard to explain what an accomplishment it is to earn a #1 Best Attorney award at the State Tournament.

There is no Nationals for us, but there is always next year. But certainly, no one would ever say that this was a building year.
 
The mighty 2026 State Mock Trial Team:
 
Binyam Dunne ’26
Alice Littlehale ’26
Isaac Fulton ’26
Greta Molvig ’28
Evan Giles ’26
Caroline Stinner ’27
Bryce Cochran ’26
Claire Smallman ’28
The team would also like to thank USN parents Ben Raybin ’03 and Hugh Ammerman for their help in getting the team ready for the competition. 
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