This past weekend UMBC Mock Trial continued their remarkable season by earning a bid to the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) National Championship Tournament!!! This bid-- UMBC's seventh ever bid to Nationals and sixth in the last seven years-- is a remarkable accomplishment. It represents the culmination of months and months of hard work to prepare for this moment. 700+ teams began the season, and UMBC A will be among the final 48 next month in Cleveland. (For those who weren't at UMBC back in 2021, UMBC won the 2021 AMTA National Championship Tournament.)
In addition to earning their bid to Nationals, UMBC A also won the Spirit of AMTA Award! This award is given to the team at Nationals Semifinals voted by their peers to best represent AMTA's values of collegiality and fair play. UMBC has a proud tradition of winning "SPAMTA" at many tournaments including several this season, and this award represents the spirit of our program: hard competition with kindness toward our opponents even as we battle with them in the courtroom.
Huge congratulations go to UMBC Mock Trial Head Coach Thomas Azari, who has led this team through one of the most successful seasons in program history while balancing a first-year law student workload. His endless dedication to the program is a massive reason why UMBC has again reached this milestone. We are also so grateful to alumnus Natalie Murray '21 for traveling all the way from Blacksburg, VA to be with the team this weekend. We are also so proud of captains Fadil Adeite and Alysha Carter for leading this remarkable team to the Nationals bid, and to the entire team for their accomplishment.
This isn't UMBC's last chance for a bid to Nationals though-- UMBC B is in action next weekend! UMBC B heads to Greenville, SC on Friday for the National Semifinal Tournament hosted by Furman University, and they will be looking for their own bid to join UMBC A in Cleveland for Nationals. We can't wait to send more updates next weekend after UMBC B represents our school in South Carolina!
Thank you all so much for your continued support of the program, and as always, we are so proud to represent UMBC!!