On Friday, March 11, and Saturday, March 12, Huntley High School’s Mock Trial Team competed against 51 teams at the state competition. The competition was held over Zoom for the second year in a row.

First, Huntley competed against Bartlet on the plaintiff’s side before advancing to compete on Saturday against College Preparatory School of America, where they were the defendants. Huntley competed against two teams total at the competition, and although they fell short of the top eight, the team felt like they competed well and executed what they had worked on.

“I think the team did especially well this year,” said Mock Trial Team advisor, Cindy Fuhrer.

Huntley and the seven team members prepared well for the state weekend. They learned a lot from their scrimmage from the week before, according to Fuhrer, who has been Huntley’s Mock Trial Team advisor for 10 years.

Because the court case is the same all year, the students gain a lot of experience throughout the season. The team practices three days a week, and they use all three of the days leading up to the competition by incorporating what they had learned from the week before.

According to Fuhrer, the team members practiced both sides of the case and asked a lot of unique questions to the witnesses, so they would not be thrown off.

“Every time that you get to compete you find out ways to improve,” Fuhrer said.

Huntley’s team members were confident going into the competition and their preparation paid off.

“I had [my objections] written down because we had practiced it before. I’m so glad we did it since I got out of it so easily,” Mock Trial member Zoe Hurmi said.

Natalia Sokolowski, a senior on the team, noted that the team does a lot of verbal practice and goes over every detail they can. She has been on the team since freshman year and is grateful for her experience.

“[State] was a lot of fun…I really enjoyed Mock Trial,” Sokolowski said.

The team hopes to have at least 10 members next year and is excited for more opportunities like this.

“There is definitely room for improvement next year, we already have plans on what we are going to be doing next year and how we are going to prepare,” said Hurmi.