One of four teams from the Brandeis University Mock Trial Association (BUMTA) placed third in a regional competition last weekend at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, allowing the team to advance to the national tournament in St. Petersburg, Fla., in March. The club also took home seven individual awards, the most of any school at the competition.

"It's one of the more rewarding things about going to competitions," club president Kelson Castain '05 said, referring to the victories.

"The best thing is to make sure that everyone has fun. People have been working since September getting ready for this, and this has been the culmination of their hard work," Kelson said.

Kelson said that the four-year-old club attracts new members each year.

He said the wins from last week are due to old members training new members who want to learn how to succeed in competitions.

Kelson won an individual award for his role as a lawyer, earning 19 points-one point shy of perfection -and four more than needed for the honor.

The competition consisted of four separate trials over two days. Teams of seven to eight members acted as defense and plaintiff twice in competing against other schools, such as Dartmouth, Yale and Boston University.

Last year, the club sent three teams to the regional competition. The top team finished 11th and the club brought home two individual awards.

Two judges score each trial and rank the performances of the teams and of individual lawyers and witnesses.

Teams are ranked on a win-loss record. A minimum of 15 points are needed for a lawyer award and 14 points for a witness award.

"The big difference between last year and this year is that we actually [had] our teams up and running before we even had a case," Kelson said. "And we had a lot of people who were talented and stuck around from last year to help new people get in the flow of how mock trial works."

Jeremy Widder '06, a member of the team advancing to the national tournament, said that all of the team's hard work is now evident. Since the second week of school, Widder said that his team has been practicing a medical malpractice case.

To prepare for the finals, Widder's team is employing the help of two Brandeis alumni who are now lawyers. The alumni also accompanied BUMTA to the regional competition, helping members with their opening statements and other points for the trials.

"It feels great," Widder said. "I've been doing this for three years now and we all really excited about going to the national tournament.