Fort Mill High earns 18th in U.S. at Mock Trial competition

The Fort Mill High School and South Carolina state champion mock trial team was among the best schools in America over the weekend, finishing 18th in the national competition in Boise, Idaho.

The team qualified for nationals after winning the school’s third state title in March as the best of 48 thigh school teams in South Carolina. In Idaho Fort Mill’s team was up against the top high school legal minds in America. Walter Dusky, a lawyer with the 16th Circuit Public Defender Office and an alumnus of the mock trial program at Fort Mill High who is one of the volunteer lawyer/coaches, said the students hard work showed not just in Idaho, but throughout the year in winning the state title.

“Our team, every student, did an outstanding job,” Dusky said. “They were troopers - they worked so hard all year. South Carolina can be proud that such a great group of young people represented them, and so well.”

At nationals, Fort Mill competed against Ohio, Rhode Island, Louisiana and Oklahoma, teacher Beverly DeMayo said, and Fort Mill’s students were top-notch against fierce compeition.

“Our team rose to the occasion,” DeMayo said. “The students were just super.”

Several Fort Mill High students were voted by their peers to individual honors following each round of competition. They are:

▪  Hailey Morris, third place, most effective witness

▪  Stephen DeMayo, first place, most effective witness

▪  Tonia Xing, first place, most effective attorney

▪  Kerry Barrowclough, first place, most effective attorney

▪  Lenique Huggins, second place, most effective attorney

Fort Mill High School brought home previous state titles in 2007 and 2009.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Fort Mill High earns 18th in U.S. at Mock Trial competition."