Bradley Mock Trial Team Advances in National Competition

The Bradley University Mock Trial team fought its way to a stellar 5-3 record at the Louisville, Kentucky, regional qualifying tournament last weekend and earned a bid to the next round of the national competition. Charlie Cohen, junior political science and communications, public relations, major, earned one of the coveted top attorney awards at the Louisville Regional competition. Gerald Regep, III, sophomore majoring in political science and philosophy, and minoring in economics, earned one of the hard to get best witness awards at the competition.

The bid to the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) event to be held in Geneva, IL from March 11-13 means that Bradley is one of the top 192 teams in the country. Over five hundred Mock Trial teams start the year with the goal of earning their way to the National Championship Tournament and winning it all. The top third of teams earn their way to the second round by finishing at or near the top in the 25 regional qualifying tournaments held all across the country during the month of February. There are eight ORCS tournaments, again spread all across the nation. The top 48 teams, six from each ORCS, earn their way to Greenville, North Carolina for the National championship Tournament in April

Individual awards are given out to the top 10 attorneys and witnesses and ties at each regional competition. Charlie and Gerald beat out approximately 200 competitors from the twenty-two teams that competed in Louisville. That puts them in the top five percent in the competition, quite an achievement.

The members of the Bradley University Mock Trial team are:

Brittany Shaw, senior, double major, Political Science and Philosophy
Mary (Katie) Conterio, senior, double major, English and Psychology
Kendyl Brown, senior, Marketing, professional selling major
Henry Moellring, junior, double major, Political Science and History
Charlie Cohen, junior, double major, Political Science and Communications, Public Relations
Adam Sundling, junior Political Science major.
Megan L. Davis, sophomore, business management and leadership major
Gerald Regep, III, sophomore, double major, Political Science and Philosophy, minor in Economics

The team is ably coached by retired National Labor Relations Board attorney Deb Stefanik and Illinois Community College Business Law Professor Scott Paulsen.