The Brandeis mock trial team placed eighth out of the top ten ranked teams at the Big Red Invitational at Cornell University last weekend, as it prepares its pursuit of returning to national competitions. The team received the most Witness Awards, out of the 29 participating schools, which are given to people who performed best in the role of witness.Cornell University, Vanderbilt University, Amherst College, Georgetown University, the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University were among the universities Brandeis competed against.

Regional competitions will take place during February break, where the team can qualify for national competitions as it has in previous years.

"It was nice to place within the top ten, but we could have done better," Hannelore Sklar '10, a member of the team, said.

Two Brandeis teams took part in four trials over the course of two days, playing either the prosecutor or the defense, Mock Trial Secretary Jessica Stone '09 said. She said that two judges presided over each trial, each picking a winner on a ballot. One of the teams, which included Sklar, Stone, Ana Grossman '09, Eric Pekar '08, Marissa Goodman '09, Elizabeth Masalsky '08 and Julia Simon-Mishel '09, received a score of five and three, winning on five judges' ballots, she said.

Every judge also ranks the top three attorneys and witnesses for each trial. Those rankings resulted in "Outstanding Witness Awards" for Brandeis team members Sklar, Goodman and Nathan Robinson '11 of the other team.

The American Mock Trial Association, which presides over the intercollegiate mock trial competition, releases a different case every year that college teams use to compete at invitationals. This year the competition involved a criminal case. The sentencing phase involved a social worker who was stabbed with an HIV-infected needle by the father of a child she was attempting to remove from the child's home.

Sklar played the role of an HIV specialist treating the victim.

"I talked a lot about how bad it is to have HIV and the ramifications the defendant's actions are going to have on this person's life," she said. "I sound like I'm a doctor, I sound like I know what I'm doing," Sklar, who is not a science major, said.

She said she thought she received the award because she was able to explain scientific information "in a way that the fictitious jury would understand."

Brandeis hosted a mock trial invitational last November. Last weekend's result means the team is "better-prepared going into regionals," Stone said. She added that the invitational allowed the teams to practice their strategy.