Washington Courts: Press Release Detail

2014 Washington State High School Mock Trial Champion: SEATTLE PREP

OLYMPIA—Seattle Prep took top honors this Sunday as the 2014 champion of the statewide YMCA Mock Trial Competition. The team is now eligible to compete for the national Mock Trial title in Wisconsin in May.

Washington Supreme Court Justice Debra Stephens presided over the championship trial in Olympia between Archbishop Murphy of Snohomish County and Seattle Prep of King County competing for the statewide title. 

Top ten finalists of the competition are as follows:

The Best Witness Award went to Zane Sharif from Camas High School, and the Best Attorney Awards went to Molly McCarthy and Katherine Gavin from Seattle Prep and Claudia Morales from Archbishop Murphy.
 
A total of 20 high school teams from across the state competed for the title in a three-day, four-round competition this weekend at the Thurston County Courthouse, as attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious criminal trial inspired by both an unfinished Charles Dickens novel and recent criminal cases around Washington.

This is the 27th year for the YMCA Mock Trial program, which began in 1987. Mock Trial is part of the YMCA’s Youth & Government program, which helps students experience democracy in action. Mock Trial allows students to participate in true-to-life courtroom drama before real judges in real courtrooms, gaining an understanding of the law and the role of the judiciary.

PROGRAM CONTACTS: Seattle Prep Head Coach (Andy McCarthy, (206) 931-1058); Judge Robert Lewis, Mock Trial Program Chair at (360) 397-2226; Sarah Clinton, Executive Director, YMCA Youth and Government Program at (360) 480-4838 (cell).