Centennial High School Named Mock Trial Champs

Sixteen high school teams competed on Saturday, January 28 in the final round of the Kern County Mock Trials held in Bakersfield’s Kern County Superior Courts. Competing high schools reversed defense and prosecution roles each round and provided witnesses and courtroom officials in the fictitious case of People v. Franks, the trial of Jordan Franks, a young actor who finished a run of performances of the Shakespeare-adaptation Macbeth at Sea on the cruise ship Heart of the Ocean.

Franks was charged with robbery and battery of Franks’ fellow actor, Billie Scher. In the end, Centennial claimed victory in a close showdown round to win and will go on to represent Kern County in the California Mock Trial in March. The Kern County Bar Association Foundation awarded the winning team with $2,500 to cover state competition fees.

Rounding out the top 5 teams were:

Second — Liberty High School

Third — Garces Memorial High School

Fourth — Stockdale High School

Fifth — Highland High School B Team

The top two students from each team who consistently performed the best throughout the course of the two-month competition were named to the Honor Court. They were:

BHS: Arianna Ibanez Ruelas and Parker Lambie

Centennial: Vaishvi Joshi and Mia Rojas

Centennial B Team: Shelene Bellamy and Hayliee Tat

Delano: Gabby Mendez Alonso and Kaeleigh Chanel Cezar

East: Noah Straub and Denali Gonzalez

Garces Memorial: Veronique Curutchague and Alyssa Hurtado

Golden Valley: Eduardo Chew and Celeste Alfaro

Highland: Logan Jarret and Anthony Renteria

Highland B Team: Arianna Enriquez and Rachel Camarena

Liberty: Cristian Arellano and Maria Robison

Ridgeview: Jiya Sharma and Valeria Ojeda Barroza

RFK: Sharae Brown and Andrea Bravo

South: Karrigan Weldin and Sereen Evans

Stockdale: Lilliana Brownlee and Robbie Achury

West: Adamariz Escobedo and Elijah Harvey

Wonderful Prep: Angelica Haro and Enrique Gatica

Kern County Mock Trial is funded with a grant from the Harry and Ethel West Foundation and is sponsored by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Kern County Bar Association, Kern County Superior Courts of California, Kern County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff’s Reserves.