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The 2016 Mock Trial Champion? It’s Yale
Yale University, the 2015 runner-up, defeated the University of Virginia on Sunday evening in the final round of the Bell Tower Championship at the Younts Conference Center to capture the first mock trial national championship in school history.
Yale and Virginia emerged from a pair of 24-team divisions after the American Mock Trial National Tournament, hosted by Furman for the first time, began Friday afternoon. The Paladins, participating in their 20th straight national tournament, finished with a 10-10 record, good for 11th place and honorable mention honors.
More than a thousand people from around the country descended on Greenville for the event, including approximately 500 students and more than 300 volunteer judges. Trials took place at courthouses downtown as well as in “courtrooms” on campus constructed for the event by Tony Whitaker and Wayne Merrill of the university carpentry shop.
The Bell Tower Championship was organized by Furman political science professor and mock trial director Glen Halva-Neubauer, Ph.D.