Mock Trial Team is State Champion

After narrowly coming in second behind Mullen High School last year, the Colorado Academy Mock Trial Team is the State Champion for 2025-2026, the first win for the Mustangs since 2017. The achievement came as the team conquered not only the competition from around the state, but also a series of unique challenges that nearly derailed their chances at the State Title. The team travels to the National High School Mock Trial Competition in May.

It was February when the skilled Mock Trial participants were disappointed to learn that they had placed third in the Denver Regional Competition, just missing qualifying for State, but in early March, longtime Mock Trial coordinator and English Instructor Dr. Jon Vogels received an apologetic call from the coordinating judge of the Colorado Bar Association, which sponsors the State Competition. Due to a mathematical scoring error, he said, CA should have placed second, earning an automatic spot in the March Championship Round in Fort Collins.

The team was elated at the surprise turnabout, but their joy was quickly followed by worry: CA’s A Squad had lost three weeks of critical practice time, and were forced to scramble to prepare in just a matter of days. According to Dr. Vogels, “These students worked incredibly hard this year, and there was no question they would rally for one more shot at the State Tournament.”

On Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14, the CA team battled their way through four challenging opponents as they played the roles of attorneys, witnesses, court journalists, and artists in the case of Jordan Peterson vs. Riley Quinn, in which a high school student suffers a complete loss of smell (anosmia) after using a wellness supplement powder as a nasal spray, following viral social media content from a popular influencer.

When CA ended up face to face with Mullen in the Championship Round, a repeat of the scenario that gave Mullen the victory last year, this time it was the Mustangs who prevailed.

Over the two days, student lawyers Keren Laizer and Isabel Gottlieb, as well as witnesses Hashem Elprince, Sequoia Holzmann, and Adam Marwan all earned special recognitions from the Colorado Bar Association. Other team members were Valentina Bartels, Jay Bhandari, Lawrence Mays, MJ Seitz-Yanez, and Mitchell Sindler. Chloe Chesley-Vogels was the timer. All eleven of these students earned high marks for their skills and professionalism.

Coaches Doug Beck, Lara Mullin, and Scott Reisch, along with Dr. Vogels, will take the team to Des Moines, Iowa, for the National High School Mock Trial Competition from May 7-9. There the best teams from around the country face off, all arguing a new case that will be released in two weeks.