After months of preparation, the CHS Mock Trial teams headed to the regional competition on Feb. 24. This year’s case was civil, meaning that the plaintiff would be suing the defense. However, the case still had fun witnesses to portray, including an incompetent nurse suspected of killing an old man, a trigger-happy neighbor with a history of trouble with law enforcement and a disgruntled gnome owner whose million-dollar gnome collection was destroyed by a drone.

Eliam Rosenberg, who portrayed the disgruntled gnome owner, was thrilled to hear that the mock trial team made it to states. Despite facing challenges throughout the day, he accepted the curveballs with excitement.

“I think that it really showed me that you can prepare and you can prepare, but at the end of the day, there are some things that are completely out of your control,” Rosenberg said. “You have to learn to take things as they come in and be adaptable.”

Rosenberg appreciated the other members of mock trial, citing them as the reason that the team was able to move on to the state-wide competition.

“If we didn’t have such an awesome community and these people that we could fall back on and laugh with, through it all, it would have been really difficult,” Rosenberg said, “but we had each other and that was huge. And that really made things easy.”

Charlotte Rotenberg, captain of the B-team, felt frustrated watching her teammates deal with a rough trial. She was very proud of her team and how they rose to the occasion.

“I’ve seen everyone grow and learn in their confidence and their general knowledge of mock trial and I’m just really looking forward to the future,” Rotenberg said. “I just know that we’re gonna learn more and get better.”

CHS’ A Team achieved third place in the competition, which means they will be advancing to the State Competition, held in late March.