Iona College Mock Trial Team Ties for Second Place at Third Tournament of the Season, Achieving Their Third Top Five Finish

New Rochelle, NY (January 23, 2013) The Iona College Mock Trial Team tied for second place this past weekend at the 25-team tournament at Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus. This was the team’s third tournament of the year and their third top-five finish, previously finishing third at a tournament hosted by Columbia University in October and placing fifth at a tournament hosted by Yale in December. After defeating teams from The King's College, NY, Fordham University, NY and Holy Cross, MA, the team lost to the number 2 ranked-team in the country and 2011 national champion, New York University. 

Under the tutelage of Coach Adam Detsky, Esq., the team achieved a rare feat with three students winning awards for being the top advocates at the tournament, an award given to only 10 people at the competition.  Co-Captains Anastasia Nitis, Mary Ann Gallucci and Kimberleigh Costanzo received accolades as the winning attorneys. “This is a rare and remarkable achievement for three attorneys from the same team to be recognized as top attorneys at the competition,” said Coach Detsky. “The team's loss to NYU was as close as could possibly be - losing one ballot by one point and the other ballot by two (each ballot is scored out of 140 points).”

Anastasia and Kimberleigh were among the top four highest ranked defense attorneys in the competition.  Mary Ann Gallucci was recognized as one of the top four highest ranked plaintiff’s attorneys. “What a great start to another promising year for some of Iona’s best and brightest,” said Provost Brian Nickerson, Ph.D.

The team previously finished third at a tournament hosted by Columbia University in October and fifth at a tournament hosted by Yale in December.  The team for this tournament was: Zachary Benoit, ’13, Kimberleigh Costanzo, ’14, Ronald Distante, ’15, Mary Ann Gallucci, ’14, (Co-Captain), Amy Wert ’15 Joshua Myree, ’15, Anastasia Nitis, ’14, (Co-Captain) and Joseph Nwokeabia, ’16. The team's attorney coaches are Adam Detsky, and Michael Gelfand. Assistants include Iona alumni Amanda DeRosa, ’09, Sheena Wagaman, ’12 and current law school students Nadia Niazi, ’10 and Isaac Gilwit, ’09.

The next competition will be held January 26 - 27 in Washington, D.C. at Georgetown Law School. This will be the final invitational tournament before the regional qualifying tournament at Yale in February.

Founded in 1940, Iona College is a four-year private, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers and American Catholic higher education. It is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona offers undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science, and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs.

For questions or more information please contact:
Dawn Insanalli
Public Relations Office
Iona College, 715 North Avenue, New Rochelle, N.Y. 10801
Office: (914) 637-2726
Fax: (914) 637-2711
dinsanalli@iona.edu