 This summer four Hillsdale students will compete in the Gladiator 1-on-1 World Championship, the most selective, and prestigious, mock trial competition in the country. It will be the most Hillsdale has ever sent, after sending three last year.
Senior Nikki Donovan will return for the third time after a top-10 finish at last year's Gladiator, and winning top defense attorney in the state at the CA state finals in March. Junior Jonah Immanuel will return for the second time after closing in this year's state final. Senior Annie Stump, and junior M Thompson will compete for the first time, also after both competing in the state final this year.
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 At Law Day last Friday, April 25, the bar association recognized four student for outstanding performance in county competition. Pretrialer Melody Puls received a special commendation for her performance -- that's following straight perfect scores and MVP in the state final. JV witness Mira Shek was also recognized for their performance as podcaster C.J. Costly. Julia Streeter repeated as the top pretrialer in the county (Hillsdale's first repeat winner). And Neko Javaheri was named the top JV trial attorney.
Earlier in the week, the varsity team also received a resolution last week at the County board of supervisors meeting in recognition of the season. Up next, Hillsdale will send four teams to the Tournament of Champions, a national competition held by MockOn Academy.  This weekend, Hillsdale competed as one of 34 teams in the State Finals in Los Angeles (narrowed down from more than 450 statewide). After 4 rounds of intense competition against teams from San Joaquin County, Santa Cruz. Monterey, and Contra Costa (winning 11 ballots to 1 along the way) they advanced to the Championship Round to compete for the top spot against Trinity Pacific Christian School from Ventura County, the reigning state champs. After a very close final round (50.18 to 49.82 by percentages), with fantastic performance by both teams, they took 2nd place.
Navya Sinha, portraying forensic expert Rae Forrest, received an MVP award in Round 1. Melody Puls, prosecution pre-trialer, received an MVP award during the Championship Round. Nikki Donovan, defense closer, received an MVP award during all 3 rounds she competed in, and took home an Outstanding Defense Attorney award for the entire tournament. So proud of everyone. You were fantastic all weekend!  On February 13, in a rematch of last year's final, Hillsdale defeated a fantastic Menlo School team to win the 2025 San Mateo County Championship. The margin of victory was one percentage point (out of 800).
Hillsdale will now travel to L.A. for the CA State Finals on March 14-16. 
Recent Hillsdale Alums Jack Spillner, Somya Singh, and Rachel Fekete, Competing in College1/19/2025  Congratulations to Jack Spillner (top left, first on right), now competing for Cornell's mock trial team!
Congrats to Somya Singh (bottom, first on right) now competing for Pomona mock trial! And Congrats to Rachel Fekete (top right, third from left) now competing for Berkeley's top ranked moot court team. They now join about a dozen Hillsdale alums competing on mock trial teams all over the county! Congratulations also to Cole Baker ('23), a competitor for American University, who won back-to-back top attorney awards at the Beach Party Invitational at UC Irvine, and at the Georgetown Hilltop Tournament. And to Uma Ganeshan ('21), a competitor at UC Riverside, for winning a top attorney award at the Cal Poly SLO-Town Hoedown. And once again to Rhea Jain ('23), a competitor at UCLA, for winning a top witness award at the Case Western Spartan Throwdown. Good luck to all our alumni as they head into the regional competitions.  After a long and very competitive tryout season Hillsdale welcomes 14 new mock trialers (11 freshman and 3 sophomores) to the family! Congratulations to:
Elaine Franchi Magen Zelony Mahati Vaidyanathan Katherine Dixon Gia Belforte Neel Viswanathan Parker Lee Kellen Kalmbach Neko Javaheri Isabella Quiros Grace Weinberg Ian Chiu Gianna Camilleri Judy Michael  On July 19-20, Hillsdale sent Jack Spillner, Nikki Donovan, and Jonah Immanuel to compete in the 10th Gladiator 1-on-1 World Championship -- Gladiator X -- in Atlanta. This year the field expanded to 60 of the best high school mock trialers in the country. In the case, United States v. Kid and Way, two defendants, career criminal Addison Kidd and high-profile billionaire Wyatt Way, were charged with theft of a major artwork for allegedly stealing an Ancient Roman antiquity from the High Museum in Atlanta. It was the first case in the competition's history that included two defendants (pointing the finger at each other) in the same trial. Gladiators were asked to prepare two sides as attorneys and play two of three witnesses.
In the end, Hillsdale rising senior Nikki Donovan, competing for the second time, finished 9th in an extraordinarily tough field. Congratulations Nikki! Jack, a rare four-time Gladiator, finished his high school career as the most decorated Hillsdale mock trialer in the last decade. Jack will continue his mock trial career at Cornell in August. And Jonah Immanuel, competing for the first time, gave some truly fantastic performances as an attorney defending both Kidd and Way, and portraying both defendants as witnesses (and sporting a British accent as Wyatt Way). Fantastic job to all three! HILLSDALE HAS GREAT TEAM SHOWING AT TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS; TAKES HOME SEVERAL INDIVIDUAL AWARDS6/9/2024   Last weekend Hillsdale took four teams to the 4th Annual Tournament of Champions put on Mock On Academy. The competition featured 40 teams from all over the country, plus Canada and China. The case was based on the 1983 movie Clue and allowed the prosecution to choose between two defendants, Green or White. The charge was murder in the billiard room with poison wine. Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Presley Peacock, and Sutton Scarlet provided the testimony as witnesses.
Our A team just missed (by two points) repeating as a finalist, finishing 2nd in their division (of 20). Our B team finished 5th in their division. Our C & D teams did not place, but both finished with winning records. We also took home several individual awards. Senior Abby Bartfeld (heading to UCSB in the fall) won a witness award for her portrayal of Sutton Scarlett. Junior Annie Stump (competing for Hillsdale for the first time) won a witness award, also for portraying Sutton Scarlett. And Nikki Donovan won a top attorney award earning a perfect 20/20 ranks. And thank you to senior Karen Barrios for always keeping us entertained with mock trial memes! We'll miss them next year. |
Hillsdale Mock TrialThe Hillsdale Mock Trial team is the competitive mock trial team for Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, CA. Archives
March 2025
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