On April 2, Francis Howell North’s mock trial team took home this school’s very first state championship. After many countless practice sessions and tireless nights, the team felt the reward of victory coming back from Kansas City after days of trials for competition. 

FHN mock trial this year has two co-captains that lead the team to state. Emily Gantz is a senior at FHN and is one of the mock trial captains. She has been in Mock Trial for four years now and was ecstatic to find the FHN mock trial team had won at the state competition. Everyone on the team practiced and worked so hard to prepare for the trials, but Gantz credits her co-captain Ella Struble for the team’s success for this year.

“Ella put in a bunch of work,” Gantz said. “She worked really hard. She’s pretty much the reason we won because my team lost one of our rounds at prelims.”

Four year mock trial member and second year captain Elizabeth Struble is very passionate about mock trial. After succeeding in trials at prelims and regionals, she carried the team through state competition. Ella was overjoyed for the team when they became state champions. 

“Delighted would be an understatement,” Struble said. “I was very happy that we won. I think us winning speaks the most to our hard work as a team because we started out in a not very good place. I was very proud of myself and all of my kids.”

Now that Mock Trial has advanced, they will now move on to national competition representing Francis Howell North High School. On May 18-20, the team will be competing in Little Rock, Arkansas. The team will spend the next few weeks reviewing their case for their trial, working hard to be competitive at nationals.