The Knoxville High School Mock Trial Team qualified for State for the sixth year in a row with a fourth place finish at Regionals Thursday in Marshalltown. The team scored 487 points to earn the state trip to Des Moines.

There is a short turnaround for the 10 students on the Knoxville team, coached by Lisa Hermsen while Former Marion County Attorney Ed Bull volunteers his time to be the attorney coach for Knoxville. State competition will be Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

Hermsen tells KNIA/KRLS News, “The students have spent a numerous amount of hours planning their case. We are actually given the same case statewide and when we go to compete we have to be both the plaintiff and the defense. So they have different parts, we have four attorneys and three witnesses and a timekeeper. So the extras on the team serve as alternates.”

Hermsen said the students actually run through a trial. Knoxville qualified for state in 2017 through 2020. The Covid season was 2021 and Knoxville was at state in 2022 and again this year. Nine of the 10 students are from Knoxville and one from Pleasantville.

The top 32 teams from regional competitions throughout Iowa will compete in three rounds at state. The top four teams will then return on Wednesday, March 29 to compete in semi-final and final rounds. 

Team members are pictured in the front from the left, Celia Marean, Norah Pearson, Kailan Ethell, Lisbeth Rosenstein and Emily Humeston. In the back are Bale Prachar, Alex Swanson, Janie Maasdam, Aleksa Pettyjohn and Tanne Schrader.