The Bolles Mock Trial team traveled to Yale University last weekend to compete in the prestigious 2015 Bulldog Invitational mock trial tournament. Bolles placed second in the competition, beating some of the country’s leading independent school mock trial teams.

Students competed in four three-hour trial simulations during their two-day visit. The 12 rival teams included students representing Choate Rosemary Hall, The Derryfield School and Phillips Exeter Academy, among many other nationally acclaimed competitors. The tournament was a power-matching, round-robin style event. Bolles record was three to one, placing behind the current national champions – Altoona Area High School – and ahead of Exeter, American Heritage, Boca Delray and Choate.

“Our kids did amazing work!” said Bolles Mock Trial Coach Andrew Dickson. They met outside of school for more than five hours a week, on weeknights and weekends. He said Bolles parent and attorney, Ryan Albaugh, also rehearsed with the team and offered his analysis and trial experience to help sharpen their performances.

The Bolles team included: Ben Kobrin, Ari Dixon, Ian McCutcheon, Kiera Geraghty, Anderson Gronvold, Ramzi Farah, Olivia Morello, Frank Collier and Quinn Kelley. Kelley, a sophomore, took home the Top Witness Award as a rookie member of the Bolles team.

The Yale Mock Trial Association is an undergraduate student organization that hosts a high school tournament once a year on their campus. Each team prepares both sides of the trial, and performs one or the other at a coin toss. Each round simulates an actual trial, with opening statements, direct and cross examinations, closing arguments, objections, and evidence admission. Students play both the lawyers and witnesses, while mastering trial procedure, case law, statutes, rules of evidence, and the fictional fact pattern that the tournament prepares, Dickson explained.

“They worked as a unit and excelled individually, and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” he said