Colleagues:

I’m quite pleased to report some great results from the “Trialin’ Bods” Mock Trial team. This past weekend we journeyed to Omaha, Nebraska for the annual Blue Jay Open tournament hosted by Creighton University. Washburn faced off against some familiar regional faces, including teams from the host school, the University of South Dakota, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and Central College. Our Bods did very well, taking second place behind the A team from the University of Nebraska-Omaha by only half a point (literally—it was that close!). Our team finished the weekend losing only 1 ballot out of 8 for the entire weekend—not too shabby!

Our team, featuring Cleotha Daniels, Katie McAfee, Jeffrey House, Bradford DeYoung, Peter Qiu, Nikki Rodriguez, Chase Pumford, Natalie Walton, and Rose Hastings, also boasted three individual awards. Jeffrey House was recognized as one of the Outstanding Witnesses of the entire tournament, while Cleotha Daniels and Natalie Walton won awards for Outstanding Attorney performances.

The team will take a few weeks off before we take a trip over to Lawrence for a tournament hosted by the University of Kansas in early December. Until then, please join me in congratulating our talented students for a job well done!

JIM