![\"All-American](\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/05\/IMG_9169_cropped-952x1024.jpg\")
\u201cThis year’s triumphant success will bolster the program’s recruitment, legacy, and competitive drive for years to come,\u201d says Director of Forensics Beau Larsen. \u201cOut of over seven hundred mock trial teams that compete at regionals every year, only fifty teams advance to the national competition. And Macalester didn’t just qualify one team to nationals, we qualified two\u2014one out of only seven schools in the country to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In collegiate mock trial, students switch off each year between criminal and civil cases. This year’s national case was about an armed robbery at a diner and gave students the opportunity to offer a plea deal to one of the suspects in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Macalester\u2019s teams\u2014comprising Paramitha Pratha \u201929, Wu, Kofi Anyimadu \u201928, Betsy Thede \u201929, Josie Mitchell \u201929, Caulder, Sabri Abdusalam \u201928, Tani Gangal \u201929, and Violet Stepen \u201928\u2014 received an honorable mention at the end of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “All season, Mac students rallied around the goal of sending two teams to nationals,\u201d says Larsen. \u201cMy students’ belief in themselves, their dedication to the game, and their mutual commitment to each other is what made this possible. In particular, I want to recognize our three senior student leaders\u2014Maita Mungah, David Truman, and Ainsley Meyer\u2014whose behind-the-scenes leadership in many ways enabled this year’s program-wide success.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the trio of All-Americans celebrates their collective success, they are also taking time to reflect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt feels very rewarding,\u201d says Meyer. \u201cAs a senior, I couldn\u2019t have picked a better way to end my Mock Trial career. I feel like all of the work that I have been putting in for years has paid off, and I am so happy to end this season with people that I love competing alongside me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we have a good combination of legal reasoning and showmanship,\u201d says Caulder. \u201cMac students tend to be very good at creating strong arguments. We also worked really hard this season at becoming more performative and flashy. It\u2019s important to have both strong content and entertaining performances, and I think we struck that balance well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike nothing I\u2019ve ever experienced before,\u201d says Wu. \u201cIn the month between the case release and nationals, we only skipped four days of practice, often logging over twenty-five hours a week. It was an intense, consuming commitment. A special shoutout to all of our coaches\u2014especially Natalie Parisi and Brendan Hayner-Slattery\u2014we wouldn\u2019t have had this success without their support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will remember the people the most,\u201d says Meyer. \u201cIt has been such an honor to compete with other talented and driven people. I will remember how much those people uplifted and supported me. And I will never forget how lucky I was to share this experience with them. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was the difference maker,\u201d says Wu. \u201cEveryone was deeply committed, but just as importantly, genuinely supportive of one another. That combination created an environment where we pushed each other to improve while still making Mock Trial enjoyable. By the end of the season we were a tightly knit family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sky is the limit,\u201d says Caulder. \u201cWe made huge strides this year, having finished in the top 25 at the national tournament. I think that with this success, everyone knows now that we can be very competitive, so we\u2019re going to keep pushing for these kinds of results and better. We want to be in the final round at Nationals.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students from Macalester’s award-winning mock trial program reflect on this landmark year of success.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":881,"featured_media":32217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[647],"class_list":["post-32213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","tag-forensics","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32231,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32213\/revisions\/32231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Paramitha](\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/05\/IMG_9167-1024x768.jpg\")
How does it feel to end your season in this way?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What makes Macalester Mock Trial so noteworthy on the competitive circuit?\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What level of dedication did this effort require?\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How do you think you will look back on this accomplishment thirty years from now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How does the team culture at Macalester shape your experience?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How successful do you think this program can be in the future?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n