POTSDAM – The Potsdam High School Mock Trial team was crowned regional champion Saturday in Montgomery County.

Potsdam is now one of eight remaining teams out of hundreds that started the competition this year across New York State. Potsdam won the County championship on April 10 and competed on behalf of St. Lawrence County at the regional competition.

The team won two consecutive trials at regionals, defeating Schenectady in semifinals by 2 points and Saratoga in the final championship round by 8 points. The remaining teams from the capital region were eliminated in earlier rounds of the competition.

Potsdam has gone undefeated in six cumulative trials this season and will compete in Statewide Finals against the other seven teams in Albany from May 21 to 23. This is the second time that the team has won the Regional championship in the last three years.

The team has previously gone to states in 2008 and 2015. In 2015, Potsdam was the first team north of Saratoga to advance to the state championship round. Potsdam will now return to compete against the best teams in the state in 2017.

The Potsdam Mock Trial team has been coached by attorney-coach David Haggard and advisor-coach Daniel Jenack over the last thirteen years. The lead attorneys are Garrett Mattimore, a senior, Jennifer Zhang, a sophomore, and David Timmerman, a junior. The witnesses are Alison Ettinger-DeLong, Jacques Kuno, Mark Melman, Daniel French, Dustin Grant, and Christopher Brooks.

Mock Trial is an inter-scholastic academic competition which thousands of students participate in, through hundreds of teams across the state of New York. Students take on the roles of attorneys and witnesses and present a case to a judge, arguing alternately between plaintiff and defense.

This year's case from the New York State Bar Association is titled Robin Berkman v. the County of Dover. It is a fictional case concerning malicious prosecution.