Zoe Swenson, ‘23
On February 11th, CWRU C prepared to enter the belly of the beast. They'd been assigned to Regional 2-B, one of the hardest of this year's regionals, and prospects looked bleak. Prepping for an earlier weekend than either A or B and thrown off-balance by a last-second restack, it seemed impossible for this spunky team of mockers--eight of whom were in their very first year--to come out of this weekend victorious.
But, as I find myself reiterating time and time again in these editorial interludes, Case Western Mock Trial is increasingly capable of "thinking beyond the possible." C team left this weekend with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses, particularly impressive given the fact that those losses came from not just difficult rounds, but being paired up against two top-50 programs. While this record is in and of itself remarkable, it doesn’t fully capture the thrill of the weekend. When the program learned Saturday evening that for round 4 CWRU C had been paired against Ohio State A–a team that this author will admit to thinking is pretty darn good at mock trial–in a matchup where both teams (who were at this point, 4-2 and 4-2) had the chance to knock the other out of a place at ORCS, the tension was palpable. And sitting in that round, watching a team of entirely underclassmen hold their own against Ohio State A was like watching the first page in an entirely new chapter of CWRUMT history.
While each member had many, many shining moments, I'll save the 2000 word essay on how well I think everyone did and give you a bright moment from each competitor--a highlight reel, if you will. Robin Ghotra '25 made fighting on cross into an exact science, and absolutely eviscerated anyone who had the misfortune of being paired against him. Russell Low '25--a former alternate with two weeks worth of prep under his belt in terms of attorney experience--won four different objection arguments against Northern Illinois University B. Nidhi Byragoni '25 was forced to play not one but two different hastily prepared backup witnesses on the defense, but sold them like she’d been running them all season. Meera MacMullen ‘25 played a charming character judges loved–almost as much as Kiran Singh hates bad fashion choices. Will Stappenbeck ‘24 mastered the art of crossing the crying witness on his very first go, and maintained his skills with top-tier digital demos from his tenure on the 2021 Nationals team. Alex Wang ‘25 performed a masterful expert cross examination, and in closing informed the jury of the many things that can happen when you put a cat in a box with a mouse. Ruth Alvarez ‘24 gave stellar closing argument after stellar closing argument, managing to wow the judges despite having a background that fully made it look like she was closing from a prison cell. In a program that has produced some pretty spectacular openers, Alexandra Gioukaris ‘25, proved that she deserves to be counted amongst them. Her opening in rounds two and four against upperclassmen nationals competitors let everyone in the round know that CWRU C wasn’t going to be anything but formidable. Ani Raghuvir ‘25, captivated the jury with an earnest and believable portrayal of firefighter Alex Silva–and then subsequently smacked down on a few crosses. Shreeya Lingham ‘25 pulled off a lovely and credible expert portrayal, never looking biased despite having to agree to lines like “although I am not involved in the case and have reviewed no facts or evidence, I can tell you this was certainly nothing more than a tragic accident.” At the end of the weekend, Ruth Alvarez and Meera MacMullen received well-deserved all-regional awards.
Of course, behind every talented mocker is several talented coaches. Credit is also due to C team coaches Corey Debelak and Mark Wang ‘19, who both put a tremendous amount of work into creating the monster mockers this squad has become, as well as Enya Eetickal ‘23 and Prateek Dullur ‘23, who stepped in Saturday night to lead a last minute midnight prep session before the Ohio State round 4 showdown.
As an aside, I feel it's important to note just what this experience was like for everyone else in the program. When I joined this team, we were coming off of a year where none of Case Western's 3 teams had made it out of Regionals--or made it even close enough to get on the open bid list. To go from believing my freshman year that maybe, if I was lucky, I'd get to go to ORCS once or twice, to watching my program's C team of entirely underclassmen competitors pair up against one of the best teams in the country and holding my breath through the break because I was watching a close round is indescribable. This C team's competitive season might be over. They might have more to learn before they're ready to turn a close round like the one they had against OSU into a clean sweep. But you can be damn sure that this isn't the last you'll be hearing of them, and every team in Ohio should be shaking in their boots at that fact.