Tufts Mock Trial spent this past weekend at the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) in White Plains, N.Y., where the Tufts A team qualified for nationals.
Tufts A team and Tufts B team competed in the tournament with 26 other teams who qualified during regional tournaments scattered along the East Coast, according to sophomore Brian Pilchik, Officer of External Affairs for the team.
The top six teams from the weekend's competition will advance to nationals, which will be held in Minneapolis, Minn., in April, according to Pilchik.
Freshman Elisabeth Constantino won the highest-scoring Outstanding Witness Award in the competition, and Senior Nicholas LoCastro won both an Outstanding Witness Award and an Outstanding Attorney Award, which tied for the highest-scoring Outstanding Attorney Award given in the competition, Pilchik said.
Tufts A team and Tufts B team attained the same final record of 5-3, but the two teams received different Combined Strength (CS) values, which are indicators of the difficulty level of a team's opponents, Pilchik said. Tufts A team received a higher CS value than Tufts B Team, and Tufts A team thus qualified for nationals. Although Tufts B team did not receive a bid, the team earned seventh place in the tournament. The two Tufts teams had the highest CS values among the top teams at the tournament, according to Pilchik.
The six teams moving on to nationals from the East Coast are - in order of their finish - Columbia University, New York University, Brown University, Wellesley College, University of New Hampshire and Tufts.
The scores for this weekend's tournament are as following:
Tufts A Team
Overall: 5-3
1-1 vs. Brandeis University
1-1 vs. New York University
2-0 vs. New York University
1-1 vs. Yale University
Tufts B Team
Overall: 5-3
2-0 vs. Brown University
1-1 vs. United States Air Force Academy
0-2 vs. New York University
2-0 vs. Iona College
