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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; She never heard of Perry Mason, &#8220;Law and Order&#8221; or any other popular TV court drama. She doesn&#8217;t know what movie &#8220;You can&#8217;t handle the truth&#8221; comes from. But Meghna Melkote makes one heck of a good fake attorney &#8212; good, as in second best in a world competition.</p><p>And no, upon returning from the 2017 Stand Up Gladiator Mock Trial World Championship, neither she nor fellow Wyoming Seminary student Paige Allen got a parade, or any real acknowledgment.</p><p>&#8220;Our coach was happy,&#8221; Paige, of Mountain Top, said with a laugh.</p><p>&#8220;Being a gladiator is pretty cool,&#8221; Meghna admitted, despite the fact that getting deep into mock trials can make you &#8220;kind of nerd-out about Constitutional law.&#8221;</p><p>The duo &#8212; Meghna will be a senior this fall, Paige graduated this spring &#8212; have been competing on the school&#8217;s mock trial team so long they routinely finish each other&#8217;s sentences, laugh at recollections before a story is finished, and rattle off legal minutiae they&#8217;ve used in pseudo court as well as any TV lawyer.</p><p>That kind of camaraderie is a big reason those who take up mock-trialing stay with it, both said.</p><p>Paige got into it as an extension of her passion for performance, figuring playing a witness would hone acting and improvisation skills, but found herself swept up by the legal aspects as well. Meghna opted to try it partly because of her love of debate and partly on a whim after talking to people at an activities fair her first year in Seminary&#8217;s Upper School.</p><p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter why you start it,&#8221; Paige pointed out. &#8220;You stick with mock trial because of the friends.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We spend so much time together practicing,&#8221; Meghna, of Moosic, explained.</p><p>The team usually practices about three times a week, though the frequency climbs if you go to the world championship event.</p><p>Most competitions involve a team that takes turns playing the parts of attorneys and witnesses. Preparation can require reviewing reams of paper and lengthy polishing of a performance that, though scripted, always requires adapting to unpredictable changes. There&#8217;s pressure, but it is spread among all members.</p><p>The Gladiator event, by comparison, is a series of one-on-one competitions: as prosecuting and defending attorney, and as a witness for each side. As the competition &#8212; held earlier this month in California &#8212; neared, Paige and Meghna kicked up the practice frequency to every other day, then to every day.</p><p>While knowledge of the law is important, performance is what wins titles, they agreed. The judges are looking for things like credibility for witnesses, and at opening, exhibit use and closing for attorneys.</p><p>In the team competitions, Meghna said, if you&#8217;re well-prepared you can have an off-day and still win. The world event was very different. &#8220;You can go into Gladiator, and being at 100 percent isn&#8217;t good enough.&#8221;</p><p>It gets tough not simply because the 48 competitors are among the best in the world, but also because the rules call for a &#8220;surprise witness,&#8221; with only about 20 minutes to prepare for the change. &#8220;It&#8217;s like being in a play where they introduce a new character during the performance,&#8221; Paige said.</p><p>Yet only two weeks after enduring that pressure, they were right back in it, meeting with team members and going over the case the students face in the next team competition, arguing the application of the Fourth Amendment to prison inmates and discussing who should play which parts.</p><p>&#8220;Our program is one of the most successful in the nation,&#8221; Paige says matter-of-factly. &#8220;We don&#8217;t get the recognition we deserve.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Paige Allen, left, and Meghna Melkote competed in the Gladiator Mock Trial World Championship earlier this month, and Melkote took second place after six rounds of one-on-one competition. Melkote, of Moosic, will be a senior at Wyoming Seminary while Allen, of Mountain Top, graduated from Seminary this spring and is headed to Princeton University. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_TTL072017mock.jpg</photo0><caption0>Paige Allen, left, and Meghna Melkote competed in the Gladiator Mock Trial World Championship earlier this month, and Melkote took second place after six rounds of one-on-one competition. Melkote, of Moosic, will be a senior at Wyoming Seminary while Allen, of Mountain Top, graduated from Seminary this spring and is headed to Princeton University. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Sem student is world’s second best in mock trial competition