(Posted November 11, 2019)

Juniata College mock trial team captain Courtney Frye of Roaring Spring, Pa., and coach David Andrews celebrate a successful tournament showing at the University of California Berkeley. 

Juniata College mock trial team captain Courtney Frye of Roaring Spring, Pa., and coach David Andrews celebrate a successful tournament showing at the University of California Berkeley. 

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College’s mock trial team prevailed over some of the top teams in the country at the invitation-only National Tournament in California at the University of California at Berkeley. 

“We defeated the University of San Francisco, Claremont-McKenna College, and the University of California at Berkeley, one of the top-ranked teams in the country,” said the team’s coach David P. Andrews ’74. “We were 6-0 going into the final round and lost to Stanford by one point.”

Led by Andrews and assistant coach Haley Walker ’19, Juniata College’s mock trial team members are captain, Courtney Frye of Roaring Spring, Pa., and Nattie Daversa of Altoona, Pa., Meadow Walshaw-Wertz of Sunbury, Pa., Mallory Duplantis of Houma, La., Mitch Jellen of Telford, Pa., Vidal Glassman of Seattle, Wash., Fiona Skinner of Camp Hill, Pa., Tessa Senel of Whitehouse Station, N.J., and Olivia Cooley of Portland, Ore.

Senel was recognized with the Outstanding Witness Award at the tournament. 

“The most memorable part of the tournament was going head-to-head against University of California Berkeley, ranked 14th in the nation, and defeating them,” said Frye, a former member of the Central High School mock trial team. This showed our team that it doesn’t matter if you’re from a school in rural Pennsylvania or a city in California. We can compete with anyone if we work hard.”

Frye credited Andrews and Walker for the hours they put in to prepare the team and with the team’s dedication to winning.

“Our team proved that Juniata can win against the top academic schools in the country. The competition was fierce,” Andrews said. “We were able to play against two of the top-ranked teams in the country on the same day in playing University of California at Berkeley and Stanford on Sunday.”

In attendance at the prestigious tournament were members of Juniata College’s board of trustees, Tim Statton ’72 and Pat Chiang-Lo, and Jason Moran, vice president of enrollment. 

“The team members were thrilled that the trustees took the time to come to the trials to support them,” said Andrews. “Also, it was the financial contributions of the trustees that made this cross-country trip possible.”

“We were so excited to have support from our families and Juniata community members who drove hours or flew across the country to come and support us,” said Frye. 

This was the team’s third competition of the season. For the first, they took part in the Demon Deacon Invitational Tournament at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and in the second, Glassman won the Outstanding Witness Award at the Happy Valley Invitational Tournament at Penn State University.

Juniata College’s mock trial team will travel to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh Saturday, Nov. 23, and Sunday, Nov. 24, where they will once again face down teams representing colleges from across the nation.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.