The Denison University Moot Court team just completed its most successful regional tournament competition. Forty-two teams from nine colleges competed at the 2009 regional tournament, held Nov. 20-21 in Wooster, Ohio.

Eric Boehme, assistant professor of political science and Moot Court Coach, announced that Denison had three of the four semi-final teams and also had seven students within the top 25 individual orators. The college was awarded bids for 11 students to attend the National Collegiate Moot Court Championship at Florida International University School of Law.

Denison’s top-ranked individual orators were seniors Betsy Fisher (#2), Greg Kendall (#7), Jane-Coleman Harbison (#10), Elizabeth Zak (#14), Jake Mihalov (#20), Brandon Haas (#25), and sophomore Steven Profitt (#4).

Six and a half out of Denison’s eight and a half teams won out on Friday and competed in the head-to-head rounds on Saturday. The teams of seniors Blair Cathcart and Ben Bennett; first-year student Rachel Atkins and Steven Profitt; and senior Geoff Byrne (competing in a hybrid team with a Wooster student) each broke into the final round of 16. Seniors Ian Darrow and Greg Kendall were quarterfinalists in the Elite 8. The teams of Betsy Fisher and Brandon Haas, and Jake Mihalov and Jane-Coleman Harbison, were semi-finalists in the Final Four. At the conclusion of the event, the team of sophomore Christina Bazak and Liz Zak were the tournament runners-up.

The Denison teams of Bazak and Zak, Fisher and Haas, Mihalov and Harbison, Kendall and Darrow, each received automatic bids to the National Tournament based on Saturday’s competition. Another two at-large bids (based on team scores and the “strength of schedule” of the Midwest region) were awarded to Atkins and Profitt and also to Byrne’s hybrid team.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575