Mock Trial participants gathered at the University of California, Irvine Crystal Cove Auditorium on Feb. 7 for the 38th Annual CRF-OC Mock Trial Awards. Among high schoolers from 14 other public school districts, junior Nishad Francis won Outstanding Pretrial Attorney and junior Jason Lee won Outstanding Witness.

“When I first received the award, I felt a bit shocked as I felt I could have done many things better regarding my performance,” Lee said. “However, I also felt really proud because it proved our months of hard work during the season paid off and ultimately allowed our team to move onto participating as one of the top 16 schools.”

Students were awarded for their overall performance throughout the entire Mock Trial season. Lee was one of two recipients of the witness award for the character Marlow Patterson, and Francis was one out of 10 recipients of the Outstanding Pretrial Attorney Award.

“I think the thing that the award doesn’t represent is that I didn’t do it on my own,” Francis said. “Only by working with each other, scrimmaging, bouncing ideas, that’s how we got to the level we are. And to be nominated not only shows me how much work I did, but it also shows just how good my team was.”

In the future, Francis said he hopes Mock Trial can expand from individual awards into team awards and would like to advance further in playoffs.