La Reina High School of Thousand Oaks captured the California Mock Trial Championship March 30 when its defense team won the final round against Piedmont High School from Alameda County.

In the preliminary rounds of the 32-team tournament at the Riverside County Courthouse, La Reina won its trials against teams from Otay Ranch Senior High (San Diego County), Louisville High School of Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County), Redlands East Valley High School (San Bernardino County) and Tamalpais High School (Marin County).

Under the guidance of volunteer attorney coaches Sharon Gronberg, Matt Hardy and Tom Mundell, the students portrayed attorneys and witnesses as characters in a fictitious first-degree murder case, People v. Palmer. Student attorneys also argued a pre-trial motion, highlighting the admissibility of functional magnetic resonance imaging as evidence in court proceedings. Scoring is based on the pre-trial motion, opening statement, witness and attorney performance, closing statement and overall team presentation.

Team members included Erika Harlacher, Amanda Mundell, Nayantara Bhushan, Kristin Miller and Hannah Harper.

La Reina will represent California at the National High School Mock Trial Championship May 7-11 in Wilmington, Delaware. La Reina previously earned its fifth consecutive Ventura County championship and their 15th since 1990. Last year, La Reina captured third place on the state level.