McLean’s mock trial team competed in the 2026 Virginia and D.C. High School Mock Trial State Championship at the Henrico County Government Center from March 6-8. The team won fifth place out of 20 of Virginia’s strongest teams, making this McLean’s sixth year in a row of finishing in the top five.
“Going into states, we were very excited. We did fairly well at regionals, and that was especially motivating for us,” said senior Kathryn Thomas, co-captain of Mock Trial. “We put in a lot of effort, especially in the past couple weeks, making sure that we were prepared and ready to compete.”
This season was the first year that the mock trial team had two teams competing throughout the season. Although McLean’s second team did not qualify for states, their support made an impact behind the scenes.
“I was a little apprehensive about how it would work to introduce 10 new kids to mock trial, but it actually made [our team] better,” Thomas said. “Because we had two teams, we could scrimmage against each other, and I became stronger through teaching our new members.”
McLean faced difficult matchups throughout the state championship bracket, including two teams from Henrico High School, the defending state champion.
“This is the hardest states that we’ve been to in all four years that I’ve done Mock Trial,” said senior Sophia Chen, who won a top witness award. “All the teams that we went against, except for one, placed above us in the final rankings. There weren’t any easy teams that you could just beat and get points that way.”
Regardless, the team felt motivated to prevail. With a team of mostly seniors, the pressure was high to finish their careers strong.
“A majority of us competed our sophomore year in 2024 and got second in the championships, which was the farthest McLean has ever gone. We really hoped to get into the championship round again because our team was very strong this year,” Thomas said. “Unfortunately, based on how our team was seeded, it was really difficult to earn a high point differential, and we would end up splitting the ballots a lot of the time.”
After four close rounds, McLean earned 5.5 out of 8 available ballots, placing fifth overall.
“Our strength is definitely how passionate our competing members are about law. In every round I watched, every lawyer from our team was able to keep out around half of the other team’s topics and win the objection battles,” Chen said. “It’s really where we shine because all of our coaches are litigators who are still actively practicing law, compared to other teams where they’re usually retired, or people who have pivoted career-wise.”
New members of the team found spectating the state competition to be a valuable experience.
“Usually when we practice, we practice the opening statement, cross examination and closing statement separately,” sophomore Hannah Wibowo said. “But watching it in an actual court room [gave me] a better understanding of how the different elements we practice work together to make a really strong case.”
As the Mock Trial season comes to a close, graduating members hope the team continues to find success on the circuit.
“I hope that they continue to explore opportunities related to law and public speaking, and that our coaches Kate, Eli and Drew continue to coach because it’s a privilege to learn from them,” Thomas said. “I also hope they go on to win states—that would be amazing for McLean and for the team.”
