(OKLAHOMA CITY – May 13, 2009) Christian Heritage Academy in Del City, Oklahoma’s state championship High School Mock Trial team, earned ninth place honors in the 26th Annual National High School Mock Trial Competition held in Atlanta.  The national competition, held May 9 and 10, involved 42 state championship teams from across the country in addition to teams from Guam, The Commonwealth of the Marianas Islands and South Korea.  The team from Indiana emerged as the national winner.

Christian Heritage Academy team members are seniors Joe Crow and Jonathan Wong, sophomores Jared Miller, Ryan Morrisett, Taylor Palmer, Addi Ellis, Katie Ceyler and Lindsey Littlejim.  Their teacher coach is Jerrid Eischen, and Jennifer Miller served as the team’s attorney coach for the state and national competitions.

Eischen said, “I was impressed that the students realized they weren’t prepared for nationals, and they worked extremely hard the week before we left that continued once we arrived in Atlanta.  They were diligent in their efforts, working about 10 hours a day, and their hard work definitely paid off.  The level of competition was very high, and we accomplished our goal of finishing in the top 10 this year.  With six students returning, the team is already talking about preparing for state competition next year and hope to go back to nationals to improve on their ranking.”

The state and national competitions involve teams of students taking on the roles of attorneys and defendants. The “trials” are heard by a judge and attorneys in a courtroom setting where individual and team performances are evaluated. In national competition, all teams begin with a new case, which this year involved the curator of an art museum being charged with the murder of an employee.  The conflict centered around a priceless painting called the Cherokee Rose that arrived in Oklahoma in the early 1800s via the Trail of Tears and was to be the centerpiece of an exhibit in the art museum.

The judges evaluated the students based on their familiarity of the case and the formulation of their arguments. Students received points for each phase of the trial, opening, direct and cross examination, closing argument and how well their witnesses responded. 

The annual state competition is sponsored by the Oklahoma Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and the Oklahoma Bar Foundation.  Traveling with the team and serving as national judges were OBA Mock Trial Committee members Jennifer Bruner, Erin Moore and Christian Szlickta.

Helping to prepare the team for the national championship competition were Judge Edward Cunningham with attorneys Mark Osby and Christine Cave.  Eischen said, “Their critiques in a practice session the week before competition were especially helpful in our making adjustments that strengthened our performance.  We appreciate the time they devoted to working with us.”