In the finals of the annual Tulare County Mock Trial competition held last week, University Preparatory High School (UPHS) defeated Redwood High School, which had previously won the event four years in a row. UPHS will represent Tulare County at the state virtual finals next month.
Members of the UPHS Mock Trial team include Christopher Alegre, Tieu-Tam Bui, Sophia Calvendra, Matthew Cazares, Adrian Ceja, Alexandra Cisneros, Rylee Correa, Harper Dutton, Rebecca Eastham, Tavii Garcia, Alexis Keyfauver, Mahalia Manglay, Cecily Mason, Alea McElroy, Kari Pendegraft, Brooke Ramirez, Daniella Ramuco, Charvi Reddy, Jocelyn Saldivar, and Walker Zamora. David Rasner, UPHS’s drama teacher and English instructor, is the team’s coach. The attorney coaches are David Lange and Stephanie Smittle.
A video of the final round of the Mock Trial competition between UPHS and Redwood High School is available at commoncore.tcoe.org/student-events/mock-trial.
Students also won awards for their journalistic coverage and artistic renditions of the proceedings. This year, the winning journalists are Blaine Roche of El Diamante High School and Kari Pendegraft of University Preparatory High School. The alternate journalist is Tavii Garcia of University Preparatory High School. The two champion artists are Kobe Lauengco of El Diamante High School and Alijia Escobar of Tulare Western High School. The alternate artist is Rylee Correa of University Preparatory High School.